Every year, France hosts several teknivals, but the teknival of May 1st remains emblematic. This historic event pushes us to revisit the most significant teknivals since 1994, the year these underground gatherings began.
1994-2000: The first sparks
From 1994 to 2000, teknivals grew rapidly in France. The very first teknival on May 1st was launched in 1994, near Fontainebleau, thanks to the initiative of the Spiral Tribe and other British soundsystems. This event brought together several hundred participants, marking the emergence of alternative festive gatherings. In the following years, especially in 1995, these collectives continued to ignite Fontainebleau with their energy.
1997: Commitment and Music
In 1997, the teknival took on a committed dimension with an edition focused on the fight against nuclear, organized on the Carnet site near Nantes. This action followed plans for the construction of nuclear power plants by the State on a natural territory. The group Noir Désir marked the event by going on stage to make their music resonate.
2001-2006: Evolutions and Recognitions
The period from 2001 to 2006 was marked by significant advances for teknivals. In 2003, the initiative of Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, opened a new era. The teknival became legal for the first time, thus establishing a formal dialogue between organizers and authorities. Under the name “Free Open Festival”, this event brought together nearly 70,000 participants at the Marigny-sur-Marne air base. This event marked the implementation of the 2001 Mariani amendment, a law that regulates the free parties movement.
In 2004, the edition on the disused Chambley air base exceeded 100,000 participants, marking a historic moment by its exceptional influx. The next edition in Marigny in 2005 was overshadowed by tragedies and troubles.
2007-2009: The Era of Contestation
From 2007 to 2009, a period of protest marked the history of teknivals. In response to the official “Sarkoval”, the Insoumis teknival was held on the sidelines of the event authorized in 2007, giving birth to the Insoumis collective. Although fewer participants joined, this event left a memorable mark by going back to the roots of the movement, with a warm and community atmosphere.
2009: The Test of the Contestation
In 2009, despite the supposed legality of teknivals, the State refused to authorize the event, breaking any dialogue with the collectives a few months before the scheduled date. Despite this, the gathering was organized illegally in the Eure, still bringing together 30,000 participants. However, after the festivities, a total of 27 soundsystems were seized for a period of 5 months. Only one collective was designated as responsible by the authorities, fined nearly €55,000, three years after the events.
2010-2017: Developments and Highlights In 2013, the teknival celebrated its 20th anniversary with the Twentytek, organized at the Cambrai-Epinoy air base. The Kraken Krew soundsystems coalition was born during this edition, while the Spiral Tribe met exceptionally for the occasion, around a quadriphony scene.
2016: An Act of Protest In 2016
The movement made a bold decision by declaring itself the 23rd teknival illegal, in protest. Despite the participation of only 30,000 people in soundsystems for this edition, the following year was marked by an enthusiastic and passionate response, with double the number of participants responding to the call. This signaled a revival of enthusiasm for the free party movement.
2018-2020: New Directions
After an illegal edition in 2018, the teknival returned to Marigny for the fourth time, becoming the place that hosted the most teknivals. In 2019, the event took a different turn. Faced with the repression of the State with prefectural decrees limiting the circulation of vehicles carrying sound equipment, the Frenchtek 26 was established in Creuse on the Millevaches plateau. Between 5,000 and 10,000 participants braved the snow to dance for three days, marking an unprecedented event in the history of the movement.
The head of La France Insoumise Mathilde Panot, one of the leaders of La France Insoumise Party (LFI), was summoned by the police as part of an investigation into allegations of “apology of terrorism”
Mathilde Panot, one of the leaders of La France Insoumise Party (LFI), was summoned by the police for allegedly engaging in “apology of terrorism”.
The move on April 23 forms part of an ongoing investigation opened following a press release by the LFI published on October 7, the day of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
Following that, LFI was accused of justifying the Hamas atrocities by denouncing the Islamist movement and Israeli colonisation at the same time.
Panot responded to the police action, saying: “We will not be silent. No summons, no intimidation of any kind will prevent us from protesting against the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
She also cautioned against what she described as the “serious misuse of the justice system to suppress political expression”.
This, Panot added, followed “a long series of other attempts to silence voices in favour of peace”.
She also referenced the recent cancellation of a conference featuring the LFI’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon and its European Parliament candidate Rima Hassan at the University of Lille by French authorities.
At the time, the event was stopped by authorities citing concerns over public safety concerns, sparking a broader discussion on freedom of speech in France.
Manon Aubry, a prominent LFI figure and MEP, echoed Panot’s sentiments, expressing her worries regarding the state of French democracy.
“Our democracy is hurtling towards authoritarianism at an alarming pace,” she said.
“We must all react.”
Panot is not the first hard-left politician to be summoned for “apology of terrorism”; Hassan was also called in a few days ago by the police for the same reason.
The French hard-left La France Insoumise Party has been accused of anti-Semitism after a poster for an upcoming conference, during which its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is due to speak, depicted a logo portraying the extinction of Israel.
— Brussels Signal
Mélenchon has responded publicly to the developments, criticising what he saw as politically motivated complaints against LFI.
“Just as the bans on conferences and convictions of trade unionists have been carried out without too much solidarity, the far-right is advancing,” he said.
Mélenchon accused “pro-Netanyahu associations” of being behind the complaints, reigniting allegations of anti-Semitism within the French Left.
One hundred days after his appointment, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said he wants to put ‘authority, respect and civic-mindedness’ back at the heart of society.
Gabriel Attal marked his 100th day as prime minister on Thursday, April 18, by speaking of “authority,” “respect” and “civism.” Two weeks after the murder of a 15-year-old, Shemseddine, who was beaten up as he left his middle school in Viry-Châtillon, in the Paris suburbs, the prime minister traveled to the town traumatized by the tragedy.
From the lectern set up in front of the town hall, Attal called for a “real surge of authority,” which should help stem the violence perpetrated by a portion of young people. “Today, it’s the Republic that’s counter-attacking,” he declared, addressing the town’s elected representatives and association leaders. “This is what we’ve come from Viry-Châtillon to launch: the nation’s general mobilization to reconnect with its teenagers, to curb violence.”
Shemseddine’s death on April 4 came just a few days after a 13-year-old, Samara, was attacked by three minors aged 14 and 15 outside her middle school in Montpellier. On Monday night, in Grande-Synthe, northern France, 22-year-old Philippe was fatally wounded by two minors aged 14 and 15, following an “ambush.” “An act of barbarism,” denounced the prime minister on Thursday evening on BFM-TV. “Very often, the first victim of youth violence is youth itself.”
“What is needed is a jolt of authority. We are ready to give it,” Attal said, accompanied by Education Minister Nicole Belloubet and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.
Common rules were too often defied by a minority of adolescents, Attal added as he repeated a phrase he’s used before: “You break it, you fix it; you make a mess, you clean it up; you defy authority, we teach you to respect it.”
The 35-year-old said there were twice as many teens involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population.
He also noted increased Islamist influences.
Attal called on France to mobilise on the issue, confirming there would be an eight-week public consultation to come up with concrete measures – an answer to President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a consultation on the “surge of ultraviolence” among young people.
Flexing on security
In his own brief stint as education minister, Attal focused on restoring authority in schools – making waves with a move to ban schoolgirls from wearing abayas, long robes that he said were religious symbols.
As prime minister, Attal heads a government that is looking ahead to European elections in two months. Polls indicate a strong showing for the far right, which has accused the government of not doing enough on security.
Among the measures proposed by Attal is increasing referrals to boarding schools for disruptive students to remove them from the “bad influences” around them, as well as imposing community service on “negligent” parents.
Another proposal is to flag “troublemaker” behaviour in the final marks of particularly disruptive students, a move that could impact their future education prospects.
Attal also spoke about the need to regulate social media and young people’s access to screens – an issue already raised by Macron, who is waiting for an expert commission to report on possible measures at the end of the month.
As Sudan marks the grim anniversary of a year-long conflict, aid agencies have warned that the country teeters on the edge of collapse, facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has been largely ignored by the rest of the world.
Islamic Relief, a humanitarian and development agency, painted a stark picture of Sudan’s situation, warning that it is on the brink of mass famine, with young children facing the prospect of starving to death.
The situation in Sudan is dire, with over 8.4 million people, including 2 million children under the age of 5, forced to flee their homes in the wake of the conflict, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Despite these alarming figures, the international response has been woefully inadequate, with only 5% of the 2024 humanitarian response plan for Sudan funded thus far, Islamic Relief said in a statement.
The agency’s country director for Sudan, Elsadig Elnour, said: “Over the past year I’ve seen my country descend into violence, madness, and destruction, neglected by the rest of the world.”
The conflict, which has pitted the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has left millions displaced and countless civilians dead or severely injured.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned in a statement Monday of a further escalation in violence in Sudan “as parties to the conflict arm civilians, and more armed groups join the fighting.”
Since the start of the civil war, thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, and other vital civilian structures have been destroyed, “plunging the country into a severe humanitarian crisis, and creating the world’s largest displacement crisis,” his office said.
“Nearly 18 million people face acute food insecurity, 14 million of them children, and over 70 percent of hospitals are no longer functional amid a rise in infectious diseases,” Türk added.
On Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned “crimes against humanity” were potentially being committed in the country, adding that recent reports of escalating hostilities in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, were a “fresh cause for deep alarm.”
Over the weekend, RSF-affiliated militias attacked and burned villages west of El Fasher, leading to “widespread new displacement,” Guterres said. Fighting continued Monday on the outskirts of El Fasher, he added.
“Let me be clear: Any attack on El Fasher would be devastating for civilians and could lead to full-blown intercommunal conflict across Darfur,” Guterres warned.
Breaking the ‘wall of silence’
The warnings come as a donor conference is being held in France on Monday, which French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said was aimed at supporting mediation attempts, improving coordination across the international community and providing support to Sudanese civilians.
aking at a press conference in Paris alongside his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, he said: “We’re here today to break this wall of silence around this conflict and mobilize all the international community.”
“Today we demonstrate that we will not forget the suffering of the people in Sudan,” said Baerbock, adding that the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country is “really disastrous.”
A CNN investigation found that almost 700 men and 65 children had been forcibly recruited by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over a three-month period in Jazira state alone.
A lawyer with the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies, Mohamed Badawi, told CNN then that the RSF’s coercive and violent tactics were akin to an “enforced labor system,” saying that people could be arrested if they didn’t “kill for” the RSF.
A lack of response
Doctors Without Borders on Friday called on leaders attending the Paris conference “to immediately scale up the humanitarian response” in Sudan. The charity claimed that a “chronic lack of response from humanitarian organizations and the UN have made an already dire situation in Sudan desperate,” as “Sudanese authorities systematically block the delivery of aid to some areas, while the RSF has looted health facilities and supplies.”
Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch, also said that “the global response to Sudan’s brutal conflict needs to change.”
Osman urged leaders to hold those responsible for atrocities and violations of international humanitarian law to account.
“The warring parties in Sudan have inflicted tremendous suffering on Sudanese from all walks of life,” he said. “Leaders meeting in Paris should act to tackle the shamefully low levels of humanitarian funding, including for local responders, and commit to concrete measures against those deliberately hampering aid delivery to populations in need.”
A specific date for peace talks has not been decided yet, according to US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello.
Dati has been caught up in an investigation into consulting fees she received from the alliance between France’s Renault and Japan’s Nissan automobile companies during her time as an MEP.
In 2021 she was charged with “passive corruption by a person who at the time was holding an elective mandate” and “benefiting from abuse of power” related to the allegations that the money was in exchange for lobbying services at the European Parliament. Dati has categorically denied the allegations.
Following the completion of an investigation last September, the French Financial Prosecution Service is due to rule on whether the case will proceed or not in the coming weeks.
The PNF is preparing to request the sent of trial of Rachida Dati before the magistrate’scourt … for “passive corruption”. Rachida Dati is suspected of having received 900,000 euros from Renault for imaginary services. Except that the defense of the new minister has filed new appeals because of prescription. No possible trial in sight by the end of 2025 or 2026.
Blinky Palermo was born Peter Schwarze in Leipzig, Germany, in 1943. He entered the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1962, where he studied with Joseph Beuys. As of 1964 he appropriated the name of American boxing promoter and organized crime figure Frank “Blinky” Palermo. After visiting New York with Gerhard Richter in 1970, he established a studio there in 1973. Palermo died at the age of thirty-three in 1977 while traveling in the Maldives.
Palermo left us with four distinct bodies of work, and as different as they may look on the surface, they have in common an abstraction that is always saturated with the marks of its time. Take the “Stoffbilder,” the so-called cloth pictures. From 1966 through the early ’70s, Palermo would shop local department stores for lengths of commercially dyed monochrome cloth. He would have two or three of these sewn together (initially by his first wife, Ingrid, and later by Richter’s first wife, Ema) and then mount the joined bands on stretchers usually measuring two by two meters (roughly six feet six inches square). The cloth pictures convey Palermo’s passion for color and its combinations: bright blue and red; orange and dark blue; pink, orange, and black; light blue, green, and red. The palette became more vivid over the years, especially as combinations of three colors pushed aside the simpler pairs, but Palermo carefully orchestrated the works’ installation to let more subdued combinations radiate as well. In a one-man show at the Konrad Fischer gallery in Düsseldorf in 1968, for example, he alternated pictures made of intense and bright hues with more restrained ones—a feast of color. The fabrics were common stock at a time when bold colors dominated interior decoration, clothing, and advertising, reflecting the progressive and optimistic spirit that had captured the German imagination despite the waning of the postwar economic miracle. In fact Palermo may have abandoned the silks he initially used for these works in part because they looked too precious—not common enough, not straight out of his neighbor’s living room.
Even more than the cloth pictures, the wall paintings venture into decoration, embraced in the late nineteenth century by artists like Paul Gauguin as a way to overcome the burden of mimesis, but later feared and shunned by pioneers of abstraction like Wassily Kandinsky. Today, thirty years after Palermo’s example, decoration is once again fertile ground for artists as diverse as Liam Gillick, Chris Ofili, Laura Owens, and Fred Tomaselli. For his nearly thirty wall paintings, Palermo drew lines on architectural surfaces or covered them with monochrome fields of color, often highlighting spatial characteristics of a room or adding ornamental features. Made over a five-year period beginning in late 1968, the wall paintings largely overlap with the sewn paintings. While the two bodies of work couldn’t look more different, they share an interest in long-forbidden territories and muddied categories.
Palermo’s move to New York, shortly before Christmas 1973, could hardly have surprised anyone. His previous visits—once with Richter, once with his second wife, Kristin—had whetted his appetite, and a number of German critics had already praised or disdained the American feel of his work. Many of Palermo’s German contemporaries felt threatened by the invading American art, but he was passionate about it and introduced a number of Düsseldorf friends, including Richter, to the New York School classics. His move abroad may have also been a flight from an impasse. His productivity had slowed, and he was stuck. Trying to move beyond the cloth pictures, Palermo had ventured into the touchy realm of the monochrome, which so many artists hate to love. He painted three metal squares with three different odd-colored rust-preventive undercoatings, one of which he had recently used for a wall painting at Documenta 5. But the monochrome was no way out.Palermo explained that if he “were to work with canvas and stretcher, the whole image of the pictures would be a completely different one.” The phrase “image of the pictures” expresses a puzzling concern with the public perception of the material rather than the actual look of acrylic on metal—or not so puzzling, perhaps, if we imagine how strongly metal suggested Minimalism, especially when deployed serially in space, like so many Donald Judd boxes or Carl Andre tiles. As in the cloth pictures, Palermo also served up a hefty portion of American Color Field work—the painting presented as an object, in this case through its distance from the wall; the even, intense, and radiant color. American art for Palermo was a candy store from which to pick and choose. He eagerly browsed US art journals, but, not native to the American art scene and language, he remained partly free from the constraining discussion around opticality and the complexities of objecthood. In this way Palermo was able to make painting new.
While Palermo’s early two-part objects are still bound up with the romantic notion of a fragment yearning for wholeness, the elements of later examples from this body of work are increasingly independent and unrelated. And if he painted some of his objects with prominent gestural strokes in an expressionist manner, his brushwork betrayed itself more and more. The self-expression appears learned and false, stiff and mechanical. Likewise, Palermo’s signature triangle opposes tired notions of the spiritual in abstract art. In the well-known writings of Kandinsky on this subject, the tapering shape of the triangle is associated with dematerialization, while blue, Palermo’s color of choice for this shape, embodies the spiritual. But the imperfections of Palermo’s triangles—their slightly distorted angles and irregular edges—make them hopelessly material and real. And placed on large expanses of white wall or over doors, these tiny little things also have a comic dimension. Indulging in playful insignificance, they lightheartedly dismiss the gravity of abstraction’s spiritual legacy. The surface of the mirrored triangle can become dematerialized, for sure, but the surprise of finding a body reflected there throws one back to the here and now. Even in New York, Palermo kept making objects to confront his native traditions of romanticism and spiritualism, as if to measure the distance he had come from painting the German way.
Burnout is a psychological syndrome characterised as state of emotional exhaustion, negative attitude towards the recipient of care (depersonalisation) and a feeling of low accomplishments in human service professionals.
Medical training and Internship is considered particularly stressful as it is characterized by: long working hours, lack of peer support-competitive environment, imbalance between professional and personal lives, lack of recreational activities, staying away from home, financial problems, uncertain future and emergency situations.
Fighter jets, artillery target weapon depots, assets in Ayta ash-Shab amid incessant attacks, including missile fire on Avivim
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday claimed that the military had killed half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon, as the Israel Defense Forces carried out a large wave of strikes against dozens of sites belonging to the terror group.
“Half of the Hezbollah commanders in south Lebanon have been eliminated… and the other half hide and abandon south Lebanon to IDF operations,” Gallant said, after holding an assessment at the Northern Command headquarters in Safed with the chief of the command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, and other top officers.
He said Israel’s main goal in the north was to return tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah’s daily attacks to their homes.
“We are dealing with a number of alternatives in order to establish this matter, and the coming period will be decisive in this regard,” Gallant said.
As the defense minister toured the Northern Command, the IDF said some 40 Hezbollah targets in the town of Ayta ash-Shab were hit within just several minutes by fighter jets and artillery shelling.
The wave of strikes came hours after the terror group fired anti-tank missiles at a community in northern Israel
Hours before the wave of strikes, Hezbollah fired several anti-tank guided missiles at the northern community of Avivim, striking two homes and causing a fire.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in eight civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 11 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 287 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 54 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier and at least 60 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Israel has threatened to go to war to force Hezbollah away from the border if it does not retreat and continues to threaten northern communities, from where some 70,000 people were evacuated to avoid the fighting.
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse crossed North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk.
Future Eclipses
An annular solar eclipse will be visible in South America, and a partial eclipse will be visible in South America, Antarctica, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, North America
March 29, 2025
Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean
An annular solar eclipse will be visible in Antarctica, and a partial eclipse will be visible in Antarctica, Africa, South America, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean
Aug. 12, 2026
A total solar eclipse will be visible in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and a small area of Portugal, while a partial eclipse will be visible in Europe, Africa, North America, the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Pacific Ocean
An annular eclipse occurs when the moon does not completely block out the sun during a solar eclipse, thus allowing a ring of sunlight to shine around the moon. This ring of light is called an annulus.
A partial solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth but the Sun, Moon, and Earth are not perfectly lined up. Only a part of the Sun will appear to be covered, giving it a crescent shape. During a total or annular solar eclipse, people outside the area covered by the Moon’s inner shadow see a partial solar eclipse.
Eclipses made it possible to determine with precision the shape of the Moon. Their study improved the prediction of ephemerides. Even today, a total solar eclipse still allows astrophysicists to make valuable scientific measurements, particularly when co-ordinated with measurements from observatories in space.
Solar eclipses enable scientists to measure accurately the diameter of the Sun and to search for variations in that diameter over long time scales. Geophysicists measure eclipse phenomena induced in the high terrestrial atmosphere.
Total solar eclipses allow the observation of structures of the solar corona that cannot usually be studied due to the higher normal luminosity of skylight during the day.
The structures in the corona are similar to patterns seen around a magnet. In fact sunspots were shown to be solar surface magnetic structures, which have their counterpart in the corona. The study of the solar corona gives us much information about the Sun’s surface and its global variations. The morphology of the corona is changing due to the reorganisation of the surface magnetic field during the solar cycle, which can be seen in eclipse pictures taken at different epochs. The re-analysis of historical eclipse reports and documents could help to understand long term solar magnetic variations.
One can follow these magnetically confined structures deep into the interplanetary medium. Eclipses make it possible to diagnose the physical conditions of temperature (at more than 1 million degrees), densities and dynamics, both in the corona and at the base of the sources of the solar wind. The dynamic instabilities, the solar wind and environment pervade the whole solar system and interact with Earth’s magnetosphere.
The Olympic Torch Relay is an outstanding tradition that takes us back to the roots of the Games. The first torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Relay has been lit by the sun’s rays on 16 April 2024 during a ceremony in the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, where the ancient Olympics were once held. The Olympic flame will then head to Athens to board the Belem and cross the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille. On 8 May 2024, the Olympic flame will embark on its epic journey across France.
The flame will travel to the Lascaux caves, the Alésia archaeological site, the medieval city of Carcassonne, the Palace of Versailles, and many other sites. It will light up many of France’s architectural masterpieces, beginning with the world-renowned site of Mont Saint-Michel. Other highlights will include the châteaux of the Loire Valley, along with a plethora of iconic palaces, lighthouses, bridges, viaducts, and arenas. To honour the history of France, the flame will also visit places of remembrance, such as the Verdun Memorial and the D-Day Landing Beaches.
The Olympic Torch Relay will be an opportunity to pay tribute to the memory of the people who have a left a mark on France’s history. Along its route, the Olympic Torch Relay will highlight iconic French figures who continue to inspire and contribute to our country’s influence and reputation: Joan of Arc in Orléans, Robert Schuman in Scy-Chazelles and Charles de Gaulle in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises.
It will also cross the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans as part of the “Oceans Relay” to reach six overseas territories: Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Reunion Island.
The discovery of French toddler Émile Soleil’s body close to his grandparents’ home in a French Alpine village last week has done little to answer the many questions remaining over the two-year-old’s disappearance.
Bones were found, and subsequent genetic analysis confirmed that they belonged to the 2-year-old child, as announced by the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor’s office.
The toddler had last been seen on 8 July 2023 at 5:15 pm in a small alley in Haut-Vernet, a village with a population of 25, situated two kilometers away from the village of Le Vernet which has a population of 125. At the time of his disappearance, Emile was vacationing with his grandparents. Two neighbors claimed to have spotted him on a street; however, it later turned out that these statements were contradictory.
Since the disappearance, numerous search operations have been conducted, all of which have unfortunately been unsuccessful. Just last Thursday, another attempt was made to push forward in the search. No expense or resource was spared in this small French village. Dozens of individuals, including policemen, investigators, magistrates, and 17 individuals summoned by the justice system, were present on site. Among them were witnesses, Emile’s parents, and grandparents. The events of the day of Emile’s disappearance were meticulously reconstructed once more in the hopes of unraveling the mystery.
Drones flew overhead in the drizzle to capture footage of the re-enactment, but there was no news of any major discovery after the exercise, until the discovery of the bones.
Mystery has surrounded the case for months, prompting a number of theories as to what may have happened to the little boy – with the reason behind his disappearance still unclear.
Experts fear the mystery around the tragic death of two-year-old Émile may never be solved after his remains were discovered eight months after his disappearance from the family’s Alpine home.
‘I fear that whatever we do in this case, it will remain an enigma,’ former top public prosecutor Jacques Dallest admitted, with investigators no closer to working out how the child’s bones and skull turned up near the house after thorough searches.
Burnout, Squat, Macron, Notre Dame, Sudan, Elections in India, Anthony Delon, Flood, Fire, In Amman , Dagar brothers, Iron Dome, Olympic torch, Bishop Emmanuel
Almost 125000 people have been evacuated from areas hit by massive floods in parts of Russia and Kazakhstan where water levels continue to rise.
Russia’s southern Ural region and northern Kazakhstan have been grappling with the worst flooding in living memory after very large snow falls melted swiftly amid heavy rain over land already waterlogged before winter.
That has swelled the tributaries of the Ob, which rises in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia and empties into the Arctic Ocean, beyond bursting point, leaving some cities in Russia and Kazakhstan under water.
“Why has it come to this? No one has done anything for 60 years,” said Alexander Kuprakov, a Petropavl resident, criticizing the government for having made “no investment” in the area to avoid such a situation.
Elena Kurzayeva, a 67-year-old pensioner in Petropavl, told AFP: “I was taken out yesterday and within 15 minutes the water had come in.”
Spring flooding is a regular occurrence but this year, it is much more severe than usual. Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is worsening the risk of extreme weather events such as floods.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said earlier this month that this was the country’s worst natural disaster for the last 80 years.
The Russian emergency services ministry, meanwhile, has predicted that more than 18,000 people could be flooded out of their homes in the Kurgan region, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Water levels in the rivers of Russia’s Siberian Tyumen region could also reach all-time highs, RIA cited governor Alexander Moor as saying on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency.
“Waves of large water are coming towards the Kurgan region, the Tyumen region,” government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Monday, Reuters said. “A lot of work has been done there, but we know that the water is treacherous, and therefore there is still a danger of flooding vast areas there.”
The fire broke out in the 17th century Dutch Renaissance-style building on Tuesday morning. It was quickly engulfed in flames while thick grey smoke rose above the city in scenes reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral. There were no reports of casualties.
The blaze broke out on the building’s roof during renovations, but police said it was too early to pinpoint the cause. The red-brick building, with its green copper roof and distinctive 56-meter (184-foot) spire in the shape of four intertwined dragon tails, is a major tourist attraction next to Denmark’s parliament, Christiansborg Palace, in the heart of the capital.
Bells tolled and sirens sounded as fire engulfed the spire and sent it crashing onto the building, which was shrouded by scaffolding. Huge billows of smoke rose over downtown Copenhagen and could be seen from southern Sweden, which is separated from the Danish capital by a narrow waterway.
”A piece of Danish history is on fire,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wrote on Instagram, saying that it hurt to see the loss of such “irreplaceable cultural heritage.”
Ambulances were at the scene but there were no reports of casualties.
Firefighters, who reportedly pumped water from a nearby canal, sprayed water through the doorway of the Old Stock Exchange’s gilded hall that is used for gala dinners, conferences and other events and where many paintings were on display.
Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said it was “touching” to see how many people lent their hand “to save art treasures and iconic images from the burning building.” One man jumped off his bicycle to help soon after the fire broke out, and members of the public helped first responders to carry huge works of art to safety.
Among the pieces that had been on display in the building was a huge painting completed in 1895 by Danish artist P.S. Krøyer called, “From Copenhagen Stock Exchange.” No information has been released about which works of art were saved from the blaze, although video footage appeared to show the Krøyer painting being removed.
Brian Mikkelsen, chief of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which is headquartered in the Old Stock Exchange and owns the building, was seen with his staff scrolling through a binder of photos of paintings to be saved. Works were carried to the nearby parliament and national archive building. Rescuers used crowbars and other tools to remove valuables and save them from the fire, Mikkelsen said.
“We have been able to rescue a lot,” a visibly moved Mikkelsen told reporters. “It is a national disaster.”
Jakob Vedsted Andersen, a Greater Copenhagen Fire Department spokesman, said the fire began on the roof Tuesday morning and quickly spread, collapsing parts of the roof and destroying about half of the building. He said no other buildings were at risk but that it could take firefighters 24 hours to secure the scene.
Tim Ole Simonsen, another fire department spokesman, said “the fire started in the part of the building where work has been going on, but that’s all I can say about it.”
René Hansen of the coppersmith company that was renovating the roof told broadcaster TV2 it had 10 people on the roof when the fire alarm went off.
“After five minutes, smoke began to rise from the floor to the ceiling,” Hansen said.
Tommy Laursen of the Copenhagen police said it was too early to say what caused the fire and that officers would be able to enter the building in “a few days.”
Up to 90 members of an army unit were deployed to cordon off the area and “secure valuables,” Denmark’s armed forces said.
King Frederik wrote on Instagram that “an important part of our architectural heritage” was being destroyed. “This morning we woke up to a sad sight,” he wrote.
The exchange was built in 1615 and is considered a leading example of Dutch Renaissance style in Denmark. The Chamber of Commerce moved into the building after Copenhagen’s stock exchange left in 1974.
The roof, masonry, sandstone and spire were being renovated, and Mikkelsen said there had been plans for the royal family, government officials and other dignitaries review the work later this year.
“That won’t happen now,” he said.
The future of the structure was unclear, but Engel-Schmidt, the culture minister, wrote on the social platform X that he would do everything he could “so that the dragon spire will once again tower over Copenhagen,” describing it as “a symbol of Denmark’s strong history as a trading nation.”
The adjacent Christiansborg Palace has burned down several times, and in 1990 a fire broke out in an annex of the Danish parliament, known as Proviantgaarden but the Old Stock Exchange was unscathed.
Police closed a main road in Copenhagen and warned on X that the public should expect the area to be cordoned off for some time. Several bus lines were rerouted and Danish media reported huge traffic jams.
Queen Margrethe, who turned 84 Tuesday, toned down the celebrations because of the fire, broadcaster TV2 said. A band with the Royal Life Guard had been scheduled to play for the former monarch outside the Fredensborg Castle, where she is staying for the spring and summer, but that was canceled.
India is kicking off the world’s largest democratic exercise this Friday, with 969 million registered voters casting the ballot to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament over seven phases starting April 19.
The world’s most populous country has more than 2,500 political parties, but a mere 10 of them currently hold 86 percent of the seats in the Lok Sabha.
Here is a look at the main parties vying for the Lok Sabha seats this year:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP claims to be the world’s largest political organisation, with almost 180 million members.
The BJP was born in 1980 out of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh party, an offshoot of the far-right Hindu nationalist organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The RSS, formed in 1925 along the lines of European ethnonationalism movements and fascist parties, wants India to be defined as a Hindu nation. Today, the secretive men-only organisation is the ideological fountainhead of dozens of Hindu right-wing groups, including the BJP, and counts Modi and many top BJP leaders as its lifetime members.
The BJP was founded shortly after the controversial imposition of a state of emergency by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Congress in 1975. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a prominent Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader, opposed the emergency – a plank that brought a coalition of anti-Congress parties to power in 1977.
But the alliance collapsed in two years due to political infighting and Vajpayee formed the BJP in 1980 with his close aide, Lal Krishna Advani. In 1996, Vajpayee became the first BJP prime minister but his government only lasted 13 days. He returned to power for 13 months in 1998-1999 and then from 1999 to 2004 – the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a complete term.
Modi, 73, born and raised in the western state of Gujarat, has been an RSS member since his 20s. He was also in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh before it became the BJP. Modi rose through the ranks over the years and was the chief minister of Gujarat for more than a decade.
In 2014, Modi led the BJP to form its first-ever majority government on its own and he has been in power since. He is seeking a third term through re-election from Varanasi, a city in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, which holds religious significance for the Hindu majority.
Indian National Congress
Congress is India’s oldest political party, dating back to 1885 when the British ruled over the Indian subcontinent. The “grand old party” has governed India for more than two-thirds of the years since its independence in 1947, with its Western-educated Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru credited with laying its liberal and secular foundations.
Indian National Congress
Congress is India’s oldest political party, dating back to 1885 when the British ruled over the Indian subcontinent. The “grand old party” has governed India for more than two-thirds of the years since its independence in 1947, with its Western-educated Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru credited with laying its liberal and secular foundations.
Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi was India’s first and only female prime minister. The Congress also introduced landmark economic reforms in 1991, making the way for the evolution of an open market economy.
Rahul Gandhi, Modi’s fiercest opponent and Congress’s star campaigner, quit as the party chief after a miserable performance in the last parliamentary polls in 2019. Yet, the 53-year-old four-time parliament member remains at the centre of India’s opposition politics and Modi’s main target
A scion of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty, his father Rajiv Gandhi, grandmother Indira and great-grandfather Nehru were all prime ministers and led the country for more than 37 years.
Gandhi is the main face of the Congress-led 26-member opposition alliance, named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). He organised two cross-country marches to invigorate his election campaign and tap into discontent over rural distress, unemployment and income inequality.
Gandhi is contesting this year’s election from Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
The Aam Aadmi Party ,or Common Person’s Party, rose from a potent anticorruption movement in 2011 amid protests led by Anna Hazare – a self-styled crusader backed by close aide Arvind Kejriwal. For this election, the AAP is part of the INDIA alliance.
Kejriwal, a staunch Modi critic, founded the AAP in 2012 and formed a state government in the national capital region of Delhi in 2015, staging an unexpected political upset for established parties like the BJP and Congress. Kejriwal has been the chief minister of Delhi since. The party also runs Punjab state.
However, AAP’s prospects this year are clouded by pre-election arrests of several of its high-profile leaders, including Kejriwal, in an alleged corruption case. The party dismisses the allegations as “a desperate attempt to malign the image” of Kejriwal for political gains.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
A strong regional force in India’s south, the DMK is India’s third-largest party in terms of the number of seats it holds in the lower house of parliament.
A Congress ally, DMK also runs the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which boasts of a high literacy rate and other development indices.
All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)
India’s fourth-largest party by seats in parliament, the Trinamool Congress holds power in West Bengal, another state where the BJP has struggled to consolidate its power.
The TMC splintered from the Congress and came into being nearly 25 years ago. The party’s founder, Mamata Banerjee, has been the head of West Bengal state for about 13 years and is now a reluctant Congress ally in fighting the BJP in the 2024 polls. Her party has joined INDIA, but has failed to agree on who will fight from which seat in the eastern state.
One of the TMC candidates for the election is Mahua Moitra, a persistent critic of Modi, who was expelled from parliament last year over bribery allegations
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was attacked at a Sydney church on Monday night, has spoken about the attack and his recovery in a new video.
Bishop Emmanuel called for peace among his community and publicly forgave his attacker.
Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy over the attack.
The bishop who was stabbed at a Sydney church on Monday night says he forgives his attacker and is “doing fine” after undergoing surgery.
The Assyrian Orthodox Christ The Good Shepherd Church posted an update on social media this morning that included an audio recording from the bishop.
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested over the attack and authorities are investigating it as a “terrorist incident”. No charges have been laid.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel said he forgives “whoever has done this act”.
“I will always pray for you. And whoever sent you to do this, I forgive them as well is Jesus’s mighty name,” he said.
In his almost four-minute speech, Bishop Emmanuel reassured his followers he was improving.
“I’m doing fine, recovering very quickly. We thank the Lord Jesus, so there is no need to be worried or concerned,” he said.
Father Daniel Kochou, who also spoke in the video, said Father Isaac Royel, who was also attacked on Monday night was “recovering well”.
He added “nearby church members” who were attacked had also “received special care”.
Father Kochou also said the church “does not condone the activities” that took place outside the church following Bishop Emmanuel’s attack.
“The unfortunate events which took place outside the church caused unnecessary delays and threats to both victims, paramedics and police,” he said.
“There was a large contingent of people who were not members of the church who attended and caused a major disturbance.”
Bishop Emmanuel also told his community to remember the teachings of Jesus Christ and not retaliate and cooperate with police investigating the assault and subsequent unrest outside.
“I need you to act Christ-like. The Lord Jesus never taught us to fight. The Lord Jesus never taught us to retaliate. The Lord Jesus never said to us, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’.”
“I need you to be always law-abiding citizen[s] as well. We need to cooperate with the police directives, whether it be at a state level or a federal level.
“We pray for our country, our beloved country, Australia, and our beautiful city of Sydney.”
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said, after the attack, Bishop Emmanual was “lucky to be alive”.
The 53-year-old, a prominent conservative leader of the Assyrian Orthodox Christ the Good Shepherd Church, underwent surgery after sustaining lacerations to his head from the attack.
If ever there was a red line, Iran crossed it Saturday, launching more than 300 drones, ballistic, and cruise missiles into Israel from its own territory. The Israeli, British, U.S., and Jordanian militaries united to shoot down 99 percent of Iran’s projectiles. But the precedent has been set.
Tehran said it had to take revenge. Israel had just assassinated a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general along with other commanders. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei apparently decided that doing nothing would show weakness, signaling that Israel could attack its leaders with impunity. Yet, he must have been aware that the course he had chosen risked provoking a larger conflict, especially one involving the United States.
Less than 12 hours after Iran launched its first drone, President Joe Biden publicly suggested that Israel’s “remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks” was a sufficient reaction, while privately expressing concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would drag the U.S. into a wider war. Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. would not support an attack on Iran and that Israel should “take the win” of having blocked 99 percent of the drones and missiles.
Prior to the attack, Israeli officials warned Iran that a direct strike would elicit a direct response. After the attack, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said this equation had not changed. Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz added that Israel would “exact a price from Iran in a way and time that suits us.”
“If this government does not understand its responsibility to restore the element of deterrence and respond with an attack against Iran, it is endangering the future of the state of Israel,” said Israeli Knesset member Tally Gotliv.
An Israeli response could take several forms.
An unnamed security expert told the Israeli newspaper Maariv last week that Israel may use an electromagnetic bomb for the first time ever in central Iran, including targets near nuclear facilities. The bomb, which uses electromagnetic pulses, is not lethal, but could temporarily shut down Tehran’s electrical and communication infrastructure.
Similarly, Israel could launch a cyberattack on Iran’s energy, civil, and military infrastructures. Such an attack could disrupt Iran’s military and economic functions, or even disable them for several days.
But such responses would be unlikely to shake Iran’s confidence or deter similar future attacks. Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton encouraged Israel to take advantage of the tensions to take out Iran’s nuclear program. Iran is just a week away from enriching uranium to the 90 percent level needed for a bomb, according to the Institute for Science and International Security. If it proceeds and builds a nuclear stockpile, it will act as a force multiplier, intimidating the rest of the region. Yet if Israel can destroy Iran’s nuclear program, which is not clear, it would face staunch pushback from the Biden administration.
A more proportional response could take out Iran’s launch sites and weapons warehouses. However, this would force the Israeli air force to refuel in midair, which it cannot do without U.S. assistance. It is extremely unlikely that the United States would support such an operation.
Alternatively, Israel could attack IRGC sites outside of Iran in Syria or Lebanon. However, such strikes outside Iran would only project weakness.
If Israel’s response is weak, it will show that its dependence on Washington has once again hindered its response to a vital security threat. It is likely that Washington will require certain stipulations that would hinder an Israeli counterstrike while also demanding a quid pro quo for helping shoot down missiles and drones in the form of concessions in Gaza. In short, Jerusalem will pay a price for U.S. protection.
This episode reflects the general erosion of U.S. security pledges to allies. In the Middle East, in particular, American deterrence is at its weakest since former President Barack Obama warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that using chemical weapons would be a “red line” triggering a U.S. response, and then balked after Assad crossed that line. Preceding the recent Iran attack, Biden warned Tehran not to strike Israel and rallied other regional leaders to warn the ayatollahs as well.
At the same time, Washington privately told Tehran through Turkish diplomats to keep the attack “within certain limits,” essentially giving the ayatollahs the go-ahead. This is part of a pattern of incoherent U.S. foreign policy that encourages belligerence from enemies such as Iran, Russia, and China.
Should Israel choose to conduct a significant response, it will likely do so alone. This wouldn’t be the first time. After Israel destroyed Iraq’s unfinished nuclear reactor in 1981, Jeane Kirkpatrick, then President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the strike in the harshest terms, equating it to the “brutal Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.”
However, such an operation is unlikely. Israel under Netanyahu has become much more dependent on Washington and much less daring in its operations.
There is a lot of blame to go around for Saturday’s attack. Iran has been emboldened by a Biden administration that has continuously sought appeasement as well as by an Israeli security establishment that has refused to hold Tehran directly accountable for the actions of its proxies.
At the same time, the fact that the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia all came together to thwart the Iranian attack is a sign that the region and the West will stand together against Iranian belligerence. This represents one of the largest successes of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East over the past 20 years.
Iran has warned that any response from Israel will elicit an even larger counterstrike. Tehran only used a small percentage of its arsenal in Saturday’s strike, and Hezbollah only fired off an almost symbolic number of Katyusha rockets. Should Iran and Hezbollah join in a wide-scale strike on Israel, the results could be devastating. But in the long run, not responding forcefully would be far worse.
Iran would prefer to go back to the old paradigm of trying to destroy Israel slowly and by proxy.
When a mystery brain disease jumped from cows to humans in 1996, a concerted effort by EU researchers helped to unravel its causes, and change food production for good.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of the disease, the cow becomes unable to function normally. There is conflicting information about the time between infection and onset of symptoms.
Communicated to the general public by the media, the crisis erupted in 1996. It involved both ethical aspects, with consumers becoming aware of certain practices that were common in livestock farming but of which they had been unaware, such as the use of meat and bone meal, and economic aspects, with the ensuing fall in beef consumption and the cost of the various measures adopted.
Lego Ninjago is a Lego theme that was created in 2011 and a flagship brand of The Lego Group. It is the first theme to be based on ninja since the discontinuation of the Lego Ninja theme in 2000. It was produced to coincide with the animated television series Ninjago, which was superseded in 2023 by a new series titled Ninjago: Dragons Rising.
The theme originally focused on a group of six teenage ninja, led by the legendary Green Ninja, Lloyd Garmadon. The ninja characters are “Elemental Masters”, which means that they each possess elemental powers. They are also trained in the fictional martial art of “Spinjitzu” by their ancient and wise teacher, Master Wu, giving them the ability to fight against the forces of evil. In 2023, new characters were introduced for the replacement series.
Ninjago enjoyed phenomenal popularity and success in its first year, and a further two years were commissioned before a planned discontinuation in 2013. However, after a brief hiatus, the line was continued after feedback from fans and has been in production ever since. The Lego Group developed the theme into a media franchise aimed primarily at young boys and pre-teenage boys, which has produced books, video games and theme park attractions. The popularity of the TV series and the toy line resulted in the production of The Lego Ninjago Movie, released in 2017, which was the third film in The Lego Moviefranchise. On January 14, 2021, the Ninjago theme celebrated its tenth anniversary, making it one of The Lego Group’s longest-running and most successful original brands.
The Ninjago line is one of The Lego Group’s most popular brands with young boys. In 2011, the Toy Retailers Association listed the Fire Temple set on its official list of ‘dream toys’ for the festive season, which predicted the 12 products that would be the bestsellers in that year. In September 2011, Marketing Week listed the first wave of Ninjago spinners as one of the top ten bestselling toys of the year. In 2012, toy retailer Toys “R” Us included the Ninjago Epic Dragon Battle set (9450) on its annual Hot Toy List, which it considered to be a cross-section of the best new toys of the season. In the same year, Ninjago ranked as one of the top five Lego properties of 2012, which together accounted for 50 per cent of all construction sets sold in the U.S. in that year. In 2014, the ninth volume in a series of Ninjago graphic novels by Greg Farshteytitled Night of the Nindroids entered The New York Times Graphic Novel Bestseller List at the top position, the eighth volume in a total of 12 to do so, and passed the mark of 2 million sales for the series. In 2015, the Ninjago line was listed as one of the top five bestselling themes in The Lego Group’s Annual Report. In 2016, Toys “R” Us included the Ninjago Samurai X Cave Chaos set (70596) on its list of top toys for Christmas 2016. In the same year, Ninjago was listed as one of the top themes driving revenue in The Lego Group’s 2016 Annual Report. Ninjago was also listed as one of the top selling themes in the 2017 Annual Report. The popularity of the Ninjago theme continued through to 2018, when it was named as one of the year’s best selling themes, despite an overall fall in profits for the company in 2017. In September 2019, Ninjago was listed as one of the top selling themes driving revenue growth in the first half of 2019. Due to the long-term popularity and indefinite continuation of the Ninjago line, the brand is described as an annual evergreen Lego product range. Ernie Estrella for Syfy Wire commented that Lego Ninjago, “is one of Lego’s long running, home-grown franchises, and is arguably its most successful one.”
‘They’re trying to get me gone, but they just can’t. I’m too damn ferocious!’
After more than 9,940 miles (16,000km) over 352 days across 16 countries, Russ Cook, aka the “Hardest Geezer”, has completed the mammoth challenge of running the length of Africa.
The 27-year-old endurance athlete from Worthing, West Sussex, crossed the finish line in Tunisia, and planned to celebrate with a party – as well as a strawberry daiquiri – having raised more than £600,000 for charity.
His achievement, believed to be the first person to run tip to tip from southern to northern Africa, was the more extraordinary given several setbacks including a robbery at gunpoint in Angola, being held by men with machetes in Republic of the Congo, health scares and visa complications.
On 22 April 2023 he set off from South Africa’s most southerly point, Cape Agulhas. By the time he crossed the line at Tunisia’s most northerly point, Ras Angela, he had run the distance of about 376 marathons.
Cook was accompanied on the final leg by supporters who had flown out after following his journey on social media, as he documented his odyssey on X, Instagram and YouTube, with posts amassing millions of views.
He finished to cheers of “Geezer, Geezer” and took a well-deserved dip in the sea, telling Sky News: “I’m a little bit tired.”
Little Émile, Russ Cook, eclipse, youth violence, gold nugget, war on drugs, youth and reading, Benjamin Biolay, Thomas Levy Lasne, Ngondo Samba Sylla, Vahina Giocante, Philippe Lioret,
The family of an Ethiopian man who was among 27 migrants who drowned in 2021 when their boat capsized in the Channel filed a complaint Friday suing the French state in the first such case over the disaster, two groups said.
Utopia 56, a group defending the rights of migrants, and the French Human Rights League (LDH) were among the plaintiffs.
They said it was the first such complaint against the authorities over the November 24, 2021, disaster, the worst accident in the sea strait since it became a key route for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia attempting to reach England from France.
The wife and two children of Fikeru Shiferaw, an Ethiopian who hoped to seek asylum in the United Kingdom, filed the request for damages with a court in the northern city of Lille, they said in a statement.
LDH president Patrick Baudouin said they were taking part to remind people “that these tragedies have a universal reach that we could remedy by ending deadly policies of non-assistance at sea”.
Nikolai Posner, of Utopia 56, said they hoped the families of other victims would join the lawsuit.
A pregnant woman and three children were among the 27 people killed when the inflatable boat they were travelling on started to take in water and capsized. Two people survived and four remain missing.
French authorities have been accused of failing to respond to around 15 calls for help, and prosecutors last year charged seven military personnel for failing to assist persons in danger.
Le Monde newspaper on Friday said the French inquiry showed that a French military boat patrolling the waters was not monitoring Channel 16, the international distress frequency, on which the British rescue centre had issued “Mayday” calls to help the boat.
Its crew also ignored three distress signals that did make it through via their radio, with one officer saying after the coordinates of the sinking boat were shared that it was on “the English” side, it said.
Passengers, a large part of whom were Iraqi Kurds, contacted France’s Channel rescue centre at 1:48 am on November 24 to say their vessel was deflating and its engine had stopped, Le Monde reported last year.
They sent their locations via WhatsApp around 15 minutes later.
According to one transcript of a telephone conversation seen by AFP, a migrant told the French coastguard on the phone: “Please help… I’m in the water!”
“Yes — but you are in English waters,” the coastguard replied.
A French schoolboy died from wounds sustained in a violent assault, as President Emmanuel Macron warned schools should be protected from “uninhibited violence” among some youths.
The 15-year-old teenager was badly beaten near his school in a town south of Paris and rushed to hospital following a cardiac arrest.
He died of his wounds this afternoon, a prosecutor said.
It was the second such assault after a 13-year-old girl was left temporarily comatose after being attacked outside her school in the southern city of Montpellier on Tuesday.
Both incidents come at a time of heightened tensions around French schools after threats of attacks were sent to dozens of educational establishments via an internal messaging system.
“We have a form of uninhibited violence among our teenagers and sometimes among increasingly younger ones,” Macron said earlier in the day as he visited a primary school in Paris.
“Schools need to be shielded from this,” he said, adding they should “remain a sanctuary for our children, for their families, for our teachers.”
“We will be intransigent against all forms of violence,” he said. He however added it was now up to the investigators to shed light on both incidents.
“This extreme violence is becoming commonplace,” he added.
Last week a teenage girl was attacked outside her school in the southern city of Montpellier.
Prosecutors said the girl, identified as Samara, had emerged from a coma but was “seriously injured”.
Three alleged attackers, including a girl from the same school in the city’s low-income area of La Mosson-La Paillade, have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a minor.
“Each of them admits to having hit the victim,” prosecutor Fabrice Belargent said today, adding that the oldest of the three – a 15-year-old – would remain in temporary detention.
“It seems the assault came in the context of a group of teenagers who were used to insulting each other on social media,” Belargent said.
He made no reference to religion as a factor.
Samara’s mother had told media that her 13-year-old daughter had been bullied by a fellow pupil, raising the possibility this could have been over her behaviour and clothing being deemed un-Islamic.
But fellow pupils at the school said yesterday that the girl who took part in the assault had accused Samara of posting a picture of her with an insult on social media.
“In Marseille and other cities in France, we have launched an unprecedented operation to put a stop to drug trafficking and ensure republican order,”
More than 190 people were arrested in one day as part of a vast anti-drug sting operation coordinated by the French police. Roughly 25 kilograms of cannabis and over one kilogram of cocaine were seized, police said.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said officers searched residences, roads and highways in the northern cities of Lille, Villeneuve-d’Ascq and Roubaix. Authorities would continue the raids “to hit very hard,” he said.
Darmanin said 15,000 police, gendarmes and customs officials were mobilised weekly for the work. Over 20 kilograms of unspecified drugs, 385,0000 euros and four weapons were seized during the first three days of the operation.
The first searches took place last week in the southern city of Marseille.
President Emmanuel Macron described the efforts as “unprecedented” while adding there would be 10 more in the coming weeks
It comes as the federal government commits to a tough on crime position ahead of the mid-year European elections. Some critics have linked the centrist government’s recent efforts to boost its chances at the polling booths andstave off the threat of the far-right.
Author of novels drawing on African and Caribbean history enjoyed international acclaim, including the New Academy prize, which stood in for the Nobel in 2018
Maryse Condé, the Guadeloupean author of more than 20 novels, activist, academic and sole winner of the New Academy prize in literature, has died aged 90.
Condé, whose books include Segu and Hérémakhonon was regarded as a giant of the West Indies, writing frankly – as both a novelist and essayist – of colonialism, sexuality and the black diaspora, and introduced readers around the world to a wealth of African and Caribbean history.
Writing of the “unputdownable and unforgettable” epic Segu, Booker winner Bernardine Evaristo praised her as “an extraordinary storyteller”, while author Justin Torres wrote: “One is never on steady ground with Condé; she is not an ideologue, and hers is not the kind of liberal, safe, down-the-line morality that leaves the reader unimplicated.”
Alain Mabanckou, the award-winning Congolese writer and professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, wrote on X that Condé was the “Grande Dame of World Letters” and had bequeathed a body of work “driven by the quest for a humanism based on the ramifications of our identities and the fractures in history”
Born Maryse Boucolon in Guadeloupe in 1934, the youngest of eight children, Condé described herself as a “spoilt child … oblivious to the outside world”. Her parents, she told the Guardian, never taught her about slavery and “were convinced France was the best place in the world”. She went to Paris at 16 for her education, but was expelled from school after two years: “When I came to study in France I discovered people’s prejudices. People believed I was inferior just because I was black. I had to prove to them I was gifted and to show to everybody that the colour of my skin didn’t matter – what matters is in your brain and in your heart.”
Studying at the Sorbonne, she began to learn about African history and slavery from fellow students and found sympathy with the Communist movement. She became pregnant after an affair with Haitian activist Jean Dominique. In 1958, she married the Guinean actor Mamadou Condé, a decision she later admitted was a means of regaining status as a black single mother. Within months their relationship was strained, and Condé moved to the Ivory Coast, spending the next decade in various African countries including Guinea, Senegal, Mali and Ghana, mixing with Che Guevera, Malcolm X, Julius Nyerere, Maya Angelou, future Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and Senegalese film-maker and author Ousmane Sembène.
Unable to speak local languages and presumed to hold francophile sympathies, Condé struggled to find her place in Africa. “I know now just how badly prepared I was to encounter Africa,” she would later say. “I had a very romantic vision, and I just wasn’t prepared, either politically or socially.” She remained outspoken until she was accused of subversive activity in Ghana and deported to London, where she worked as a BBC producer for two years. She eventually returned to France and earned her MA and PhD in comparative literature at Paris-Sorbonne University in 1975.
Her debut novel, Hérémakhonon, was published in 1976, with Condé saying she waited until she was nearly 40 because she “didn’t have confidence in myself and did not dare present my writing to the outside world”. The novel follows a Paris-educated Guadeloupean woman, who realises that her struggle to locate her identity is an internal journey, rather than a geographical one. Condé later recalled the Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo telling her: “Africa … has codes that are easy to understand. It’s because you’re looking for something else … a land that is a foil that would allow you to be what you dream of being. And on that level, nobody can help you.” “I think she may have been right,” Condé later wrote.
In 1981, she divorced her husband after a long separation and, the following year she married one of her English-language translators, Richard Philcox.
She gainedprominence as a contemporary Caribbean writer with her third novel, Segu, in 1984. The novel follows the life of Dousika Traore, a royal adviser in the titular African kingdom in the late-18th century, who must deal with encroaching challenges from religion, colonisation and the slave trade over six decades. It was a bestseller and praised as “the most significant novel about black Africa published in many a year” by the New York Times.
The next year she published a sequel, The Children of Segu, and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach in the US. Over the coming decades, she would become a prolific writer of children’s books, plays and essays, including, in 1986, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, based on the story of an American slave who was tried for witchcraft; Tree of Life in 1987; Crossing the Mangrove in 1989; Windward Heights, a Caribbean retelling of Wuthering Heights, in 1995; Desirada in 1997; The Belle Créole in 2001; The Story of the Cannibal Woman in 2003; and Victorie: My Mother’s Mother, in which she reconstructed the life of her illiterate grandmother, in 2006.
After teaching in New York, Los Angeles and Berkeley, Condé retired in 2005. She wrote two memoirs: 2001’s Tales from the Heart: True Stories from My Childhood, and in 2017, What is Africa to Me? She was awarded France’s Legion of Honour in 2004, and shortlisted for the Man Booker International prize, then a lifetime achievement award, in 2015. When she won the New Academy prize, the one-off award intended to replace the Nobel prize in literature when it was cancelled in 2018, she described herself as “very happy and proud”.
“But please allow me to share it with my family, my friends and above all the people of Guadeloupe, who will be thrilled and touched seeing me receive this prize,” she said. “We are such a small country, only mentioned when there are hurricanes or earthquakes and things like that. Now we are so happy to be recognised for something else.”
In her final years, she lived in the south of France with Philcox. Her novel The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, translated into English in 2020, explores the dangers of binary thinking through the lives of two twins. Her eyesight became too bad for her to write unassisted, so she wrote her last books by dictating to a friend.
Her last novel, The Gospel According to the New World, published in 2021 and translated into English in March 2023, was shortlisted for the International Booker prize. The novel follows the journey of a baby rumoured to be the child of God.
Writing, she once wrote, “has has given me enormous joy. I would rather compare it to a compulsion, somewhat scary, whose cause I have never been able to unravel.”
Since 1996, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC; Congo) has been embroiled in violence that has killed between 6 and 10 million people. The conflict has been the world’s bloodiest since World War II. The First and Second Congo Wars, which sparked the violence, involved multiple foreign armies, ad hoc militia groups, and investors from Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad, Libya, and Sudan, among others, and has been so devastating that it is sometimes called the “African World War.”
Fighting continues in the eastern parts of the country, destroying infrastructure, causing physical and psychological damage to civilians, and creating human rights violations on a massive scale. Rape is being used as a weapon of war, and large-scale plunder and murder are also occurring in efforts to displace people from resource-rich land.
Today, most of the fighting is taking place in the regions of North and South Kivu, on the DRC/Rwanda border. Some fighting is political, resulting from unrest caused by Hutu refugees from the 1994 Rwandan genocide now living in DRC, while other fighting results from an international demand for natural resources. DRC has large quantities of gold, copper, diamonds, and coltan (a mineral widely used in cell phones and other small electronics), which many parties desire to control for monetary reasons. However, funds from the sales of these resources has not reached average citizens. Currently the education, healthcare, legal, and road systems are in shambles.
In 2006, the DRC held its first multi-party elections in over 40 years, and over 25 million citizens participated. The elections signified the end of a three-year transition period during which time the country moved from intense war to a system of power sharing between the former government, former armed forces, opposition parties, and civil society. Elections were held again in 2011 when Joseph Kabila was re-elected in a vote disputed by the opposition and deemed flawed by international observers. The most recent elections were in 2018, when Félix Tshisekedi won the presidency. Though disputed by many, President Tshisekedi’s election was the first peaceful transfer of power in the DRC’s history.
The government of the DRC continues to struggle to function. National and local structures cannot ensure basic security for communities, and are not transparent about how the country’s resources and wealth are managed. These government structures have also been unsuccessful in addressing severe problems with corruption, poverty, lack of development, and heightened ethnic and regional tensions.
In the eastern part of the country (Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces), the war never actually ended. A range of armed forces, including the Congolese military, called the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), continue to perpetrate violence against the civilian population. They have participated in forced displacement, abductions, looting, forceful recruitment and use of child soldiers, and rampant sexual violence. Instead of safeguarding the Congolese people, the FARDC has been accused of committing widespread atrocities and establishing criminal networks in eastern Congo. Ethnic hostility is widespread, much of it stemming from Belgian colonialism and the Rwandan genocide, and is fed by inter-group violence and competition for resources. The result has been the creation of an environment where groups fear their existence is under threat and engage in preemptive attacks against each other. In this complex situation, multiple armed forces, including the national armed forces and various militias, prey on the civilian population. Among the most brutal of the armed forces are the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group whose leadership is associated with the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
In 2023 a significant trend has reshaped the landscape of the fast food industry: the rise of the pizza vending machine. This innovative concept isn’t just a novelty; it’s a strategic business move that’s changing how companies approach quick-service dining. Let’s look at some of the players in this burgeoning field, including PizzaForno, as well as some of the challenges and environmental considerations of operating a pizza vending machine.
PizzaForno, a leading name in automated pizza technology, has been at the forefront of the pizza vending machine revolution. Recognizing the increasing demand for convenience and quality, PizzaForno has installed numerous pizza vending machines — that bake pizza in less than three minutes — in high-traffic areas. The brand recently announced its latest expansion into Mexico, marking its second international breakthrough in the last two years.
Its business model focuses on minimizing overhead costs while maximizing customer reach. Unlike traditional restaurants, these machines require no staff, reducing labor costs significantly. Additionally, the use of high-quality ingredients and advanced cooking technology ensures a gourmet experience, attracting a broad customer base.
Food and beverage giant Nestlé has also ventured into the realm of pizza vending machines. Leveraging its extensive distribution network and brand recognition, it has introduced vending machines under its DiGiorno brand that offer an array of pizzas, also baked in around three minutes.
Nestlé’s strategy revolves around tapping into existing markets where they already have a strong presence. In the summer, DiGiorno began trialing two “pizza kiosk” sites, one located in a Walmart in Colorado and the other on Nestlé’s campus in Ohio. These sizable machines are equipped with a commercial-grade oven and stock frozen, pre-made, 10-inch thin-crust pizzas in two classic flavors: Cheese and Pepperoni.
As the popularity of pizza vending machines grows, new players are entering the market, intensifying competition. Companies are investing in research and development to innovate and improve the functionality and variety offered by these machines. Some are experimenting with customizations, allowing customers to choose their toppings, while others focus on speed, delivering a pizza in just a few minutes.
The success of pizza vending machines relies heavily on technological advancements. Modern machines are equipped with state-of-the-art ovens and refrigeration systems, ensuring fresh ingredients and consistent cooking quality. Furthermore, the integration of digital payments and user-friendly interfaces enhances customer experience, making the process of ordering a pizza as simple as using an ATM.
Despite the lucrative prospects, operating these machines comes with its own set of challenges. Ensuring a consistent supply of fresh ingredients, maintaining the machines and addressing technical glitches are some of the operational hurdles. Companies are tackling these issues by partnering with local suppliers for fresh produce and setting up dedicated maintenance teams for regular servicing of the machines.
In an era where sustainability is crucial, especially in the food industry, companies operating pizza vending machines are also focusing on eco-friendly practices. This includes using biodegradable packaging, sourcing ingredients from sustainable farms and investing in energy-efficient machines.
This year marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the fast food industry with the rise of pizza vending machines. Companies like PizzaForno and Nestlé are not only reaping the benefits of this trend but are also shaping the future of quick-service dining. As technology advances and consumer preferences evolve, pizza vending machines are poised to become a staple in the fast food landscape.
In Auchan stores in Yvelines, the “historic” strike continues
They don’t intend to give up anything. A week after their first walkout, employees of Auchan stores of the Yvelines once again expressed their dissatisfaction this Friday March 29, 2024.
This unprecedented social movement in the history of the mass distribution brand follows the failure of the NAO (Mandatory Annual Negotiations) carried out within the company since January 2024. The unions are demanding an increase of 5% salaries while management offers between 1.3 and 1.5% salary increase.
“A fed-up employee”
At the hypermarket Pleasure nearly a hundred employees marched in the morning through the aisles of the store and the shopping mall at the call of the inter-union (CFDT, CFTC, CGT, FO).
“It’s historic at Auchan. We have already had strikes but never inter-union. This shows that all employees are fed up. » Reyhan Genc, CFTC union representative of the Maurepas-Rambouillet living area and employee at Auchan Plaisir
The trade unionist denounces “achievements which are regressing or disappearing. We are not well paid, we hardly have any bonuses anymore… And their salary increase proposals do not even cover inflation. »
More than 150 sites affected
The strikers, however, thought they had struck hard with this first action on March 22, bringing together thousands of employees in more than 150 sites throughout France. “We hoped that the national leadership would understand and hear us. But that didn’t change anything, regrets Reyhan Genc. It’s a shame they don’t take this into account. »
Françoise Hardy is a pop and fashion icon celebrated as a French national treasure. With her signature breathy alto, she was one of the earliest and most definitive French participants in the yé-yé movement (a style of pop music that initially emerged from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal before spreading to France in the early 1960s). She is one of only a few female vocalists who could or would write and perform her own material. She offered a startling contrast to the boy’s club of French pop in the early ’60s, paving the way for literally thousands of women all over the globe. Known for romantically nostalgic songs and melancholy lyrics, Hardy’s first single, “Tous Les Garçons et les Filles,” sold over two million copies and made her a European star overnight. Outside music, Hardy also established herself as a fashion model, actress, astrologer, and author. Though she has recorded songs in several languages, it was her early French tunes — that ranged across pop, jazz, blues, and more — that helped to establish her as a legend. In the ’70s, she reinvented herself as an artist transcending teen-friendly pop to interpret songs by everyone from Leonard Cohen to Patrick Modiano and has remained a grande dame of French popular song ever since.
Hardy was born in Paris in 1944. She and her sister were raised by a single mom who made a meager living as an accountant’s assistant. Money was always in short supply. After graduating from high school, she was given a guitar by her absent father — he had to be convinced by her mother to purchase it. As a teen she was influenced heavily by French chanson, especially the music of Charles Trenet and Cora Vaucaire. Thanks to the pervasive reach of Radio Luxembourg, she also found inspiration in the music of English-speaking singers such as Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, and Connie Francis. While attending the Sorbonne to study political science and Germanic languages, she answered a newspaper notice advertising for young singers. Hardy failed that first audition, but she was inspired to attend others. She auditioned a bit later for the French Vogue label and signed her first recording contract at the end of 1961. She was 17. In April of the following year, she left university and released her first record, “Oh Oh Chéri,” written by Johnny Hallyday’s creative team. The flipside was her own composition “Tous Les Garçons et les Filles.” Riding the emergent French wave of yé-yé introduced to the country by songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, the recording was a smash, selling over two million copies. In 1963, she took fifth place (for Monaco) in the Eurovision Song Contest with “L’amour s’en Va” and was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. Soon she was on the cover of virtually every top music magazine. It was while working on a photo shoot for a magazine that Hardy would meet photographer Jean-Marie Perier, who transformed her image from a shy schoolgirl into a cultural trend setter. He became not only her lover but also the greatest influence on her early career. Their shoot established her as a fashion icon as well as a pop star, and Perier persuaded Hardy to model. Because of her place in pop music, he was able to persuade top designers including Paco Rabanne, Chanel, and Yves Saint-Laurent to adopt her as a model. French director Roger Vadim offered her a prime role in Château en Suède; the experience only increased her national popularity, but her heart was in music not cinema. In 1963 she sang at the L’Olympia Theatre in Paris for the first time as an opening act for yé-yé singer Richard Anthony. She stole she show. Her debut album was essentially an umbrella for her singles and sold exceptionally well, and the recording won the Prix de l’Académie Charles-Cros and Trophée de la Télévision Française awards. In 1965, she tried film again, this time Jean-Daniel Pollet’s Une Balle Au Cœur. Released in February of 1966, her performance drew raves from critics and audiences alike. Hardy’s reputation as a singer spread across Europe and soon she was spending time with artists ranging from the Beatles and Mick Jagger to Bob Dylan (the latter once refused to play his second set at L’Olympia until she showed up). She quickly became her country’s most exportable pop star, releasing ten albums between 1962 and 1968.
Perier and Hardy ended their romance in 1967, the stress and strain of a jet-set lifestyle was beginning to take its toll. That said, she met songwriter and pop star Jacques Dutronc the same year and fell in love — they wed in 1981. After massive whirlwind tours of Europe, she cut her sophomore outing, Ma Jeunesse Fout L’Camp, which was issued in 1968, just before the curtain fell on yé-yé in France. That same year she gave a farewell performance at London’s famed Savoy and seemingly retired from the stage to concentrate on her recording career. This caused friction with her label and resulted in a court battle from which she emerged free but wary of all future business dealings. Hardy carefully considered her next step. In 1970, as a nod to her fans in Switzerland and Germany, she released the German-language Träume for United Artists. But it was a stop-gap. 1971’s self-titled offering for Sonopress, written in collaboration with female Brazilian guitarist Tuca, was her first mature outing and featured the singles “Chanson d’O” and “La Question.” While it didn’t do well commercially, it remains the singer’s favorite recording and the one that established her as an influence on later generations. She didn’t care about the relatively poor sales; she considered it an artistic achievement, and history has proven her correct. The new decade also helped establish Hardy as burgeoning professional astrologer. In the summer of 1973 she gave birth to a son with Dutronc. Amazingly, the couple, not yet married, didn’t live together until well after their child was born.
Hardy signed to the North American Warner Brothers label late in the year, and proceeded to record Message Personnel with producer Michael Berger. The pair disagreed on many things during the sessions, but its title track single became one of her most beloved songs. In the spring of 1974 she worked with French violinist, composer, and singer Catherine Lara and English producer Del Newman for Entr’Acte. The album was only a moderate success commercially, but has since become one of her most beloved among fans. Hardy abandoned fashion in 1974, and all but left music for two years to concentrate on being a mother. She did write and record “Que Vas-Tu Faire” for the soundtrack of Claude Lelouch’s film Si C’était à Refaire. (It was arranged by Jean-Michel Jarre.)
Through a friend, Hardy met Gabriel Yared, a great fan of her music. He offered to produce and arrange a new album for her. Entitled Star, the set featured excellent material by herself, Michel Jonasz, Gainsbourg, William Sheller, Janis Ian, and Lara; it proved a commercial and critical success. Issued by Pathé-Marconi, Star revealed a different side of the singer, establishing her with a second generation of younger fans. The record sold exceptionally well and brought Hardy back to the forefront of French popular music. In all, the singer and producer/arranger cut four very successful albums together including J’Ecoute de la Musique Saoule (1978), Gin Tonic (1980), and A Suivre (1982, that was also the first of her albums to feature the talents of songwriter Jean Claude Vannier). The latter album featured two chart-topping singles in “Tamalou” and “Villégiature.” Fans have argued for decades that the album would have been even more successful had she resumed touring, but Hardy was far more concerned with astrology and motherhood. Over the next two years, she released only two new singles while her label focused on issuing compilations. In 1988 she issued Décalage. Announced as her final recording, her lyrics were set to music by name writers including William Sheller, Etienne Daho, and husband Dutronc. Interestingly, while it has developed a reputation as one of her finest records, it was greeted with only middling praise at the time. Apparently, fans expected more from a grand finale.
Her retirement proved short-lived. In 1992, she recorded the duet “Si Ca Fait Mal” with songwriter Alain Lubrano, a young singer/songwriter from the south of France. The topic, about love, sex, and AIDS, was cut for the AIDS fund-raising compilation album Urgence. She later re-recorded it as one of her own singles — again with Lubrano. In 1995, Hardy signed with Virgin Records. Le Danger, her debut for the label, appeared in 1996 and established her as a pop star — at the age of 52 — in the U.K. Hardy co-wrote all 13 songs, enlisting help from Lubrano and Rodolphe Burger (Kat Onoma). Deeply influenced by the alternative music scene — especially the music of Portishead — Hardy again reinvented her sound as a totally modern brand of indie pop. The album was successful beyond her dreams; she appeared at the BBC on radio and television, on John Peel’s program and eventually guested on recordings by Malcolm McLaren and Blur.
Hardy crowned the new century with her second Virgin album, Clair-Obscur, in 2000. The set was marked by a wide range of songs from composers ranging from Django Reinhardt, Lubrano, and Daho to Eric Clapton and Don Everly. It also included a pair of critically regarded duets in “Puisque Vous Partez en Voyage” with Dutronc, and “I’ll Be Seeing You” with Iggy Pop. In 2004, she issued Tant de Belles Choses, with songs by Lubrano, Benjamin Biolay, Thierry Stremler, and Jacno (Denis Quilliard of Stinky Toys fame). She also enlisted assistance from English singer/songwriter Ben Christophers and Irish songwriter Perry Blake. Her son, Thomas Dutronc, produced and/or played guitar on four tracks. Two years later she issued Parenthèses, a collection of duets with material from her back catalog. Her collaborators included Alain Bashung, Biolay, Rodolphe Burger, Maurane, Arthur H, and French film star Alain Delon. She also recorded with her husband and son at the same time — a first. The set’s first hit single was a version of “Partir Quand Même” with Julio Iglesias. Not touring left Hardy plenty of time for pursuits other than music and astrology, including writing. In 2008, Editions Robert Laffront published her memoir entitled Le Désespoir des Singes et Autres Bagatelles (The Monkey’s Despair and Other Trifles). The book became an instant best-seller. Hardy didn’t rest, however, and in 2010 issued the album La Pluie Sans Parapluie. She penned all the lyrics herself and collaborated on the music with Lubrano, Ben Christophers, Pascale Daniel, Stremler, and others. Rather than the cool, wry wit and melancholy that was her trademark, this set offered listeners a different portrait of the singer, one more sensitive and intimate. Two years later, Hardy celebrated her 50th anniversary in music with both a novel (her first) and an album that shared the title L’Amour Fou. She was also battling cancer of the lymphatic system and designated it her last album. She again composed all the lyrics with assistance on the music side from Stremler, Calogero, Benoît Carré (Lilicub) and Julien Doré. Dominique Blanc-Francard and Bénédicte Schmitt co-produced the recording.
While Hardy hasn’t set any sales records with her post-millennial output, virtually all of her recordings did well enough to remain commercially viable and enhance her legend. In the aftermath of publication and release of L’Amour Fou, the singer was absent for nearly five years. After its release she became ill while undergoing chemo and eventually ended up in a coma for eight days. While recovering and continuing to undergo treatment, she had little to no interest in recording again — that is, until she heard the song “Sleep” by the Finnish band Poets of the Fall. She played for producer and songwriter Erick Benzi (Celine Dion), who loved it. As a response, he sent Hardy several melodies of his own, inspiring her to pen lyrics for them. French indie songwriter La Grande Sophie (Sophie Huriaux) knew she had started writing again and emailed Hardy the song “Le Large.” Other composers who contributed were Pascale Daniel and Yael Naim, who gave her “You’re My Home.” When Hardy began recording with Benzi, the sessions went uncharacteristically smoothly, resulting in the album Personne d’Autre. Preceded by the single “Le Large”–which was also released as a video directed by François Ozon — the full-length was released in Europe and the U.S. in April of 2018.
When the largest earthquake in Taiwan in half a century struck off its east coast, the buildings in the closest city, Hualien, swayed and rocked. As more than 300 aftershocks rocked the island over the next 24 hours to Thursday morning, the buildings shook again and again.
But for the most part, they stood.
Even the two buildings that suffered the most damage remained largely intact, allowing residents to climb to safety out the windows of upper stories. One of them, the rounded, red brick Uranus Building, which leaned precariously after its first floors collapsed, was mostly drawing curious onlookers.
The building is a reminder of how much Taiwan has prepared for disasters like the magnitude-7.4 earthquake that jolted the island on Wednesday. Perhaps because of improvements in building codes, greater public awareness and highly trained search-and-rescue operations — and, likely, a dose of good luck — the casualty figures were relatively low. By Thursday, 10 people had died and more than 1,000 others were injured. Several dozen were missing.
“Similar level earthquakes in other societies have killed far more people,” said Daniel Aldrich, a director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University. Of Taiwan, he added: “And most of these deaths, it seems, have come from rock slides and boulders, rather than building collapses.”
Across the island, rail traffic had resumed by Thursday, including trains to Hualien. Workers who had been stuck in a rock quarry were lifted out by helicopter. Roads were slowly being repaired. Hundreds of people were stranded at a hotel near a national park because of a blocked road, but they were visited by rescuers and medics.
Since the 2018 earthquake of magnitude 6.4, in which seven people died, local authorities have strengthened coordination with government units and non-governmental organisations for disaster response and relief.
Taiwan is no stranger to earthquakes, being located near the junction of two tectonic plates, and many are concentrated along the picturesque, mainly rural and sparsely populated east coast. The region is also a major draw for tourists with its rugged mountains, hot spring resorts and tranquil farms.
That 1999 quake, commonly referred to as the “921 quake” as it hit on Sept. 21, was a spur for the government to revise building codes and strengthen disaster management laws.
Yet Tai Yun-fa, a structural engineer who runs Taiwan’s Alfa Safe that develops quake-resistant building materials, said that while a tightening of building codes had helped better prepare the island for disaster, some developers were still cutting corners.
Since the 2018 earthquake of magnitude 6.4, in which seven people died, Chang said local authorities have strengthened coordination with government units and non-governmental organisations for disaster response and relief.
In Hualien, Donna Wu, deputy director of the county branch of The Mustard Seed Mission, a Christian group, said the response in 2018 had been chaotic and they had learned their lesson.
Taiwan has another compelling reason to ready its response – the potential for attack from China, which has been ramping up military and political pressure to try and force Taiwan’s democratically-elected government to give in to Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
The earthquake alert system, with its piercing alarm sounding on mobile phones, is the same one the government would use to warn of an impending Chinese air raid.
Taiwan holds its Min’an civil defence drills annually, nominally to focus on natural disasters, though last year it also covered how to respond to the aftermath of a Chinese attack as part of those exercises.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, which only began operating in 2022 and has been leading the charge to ensure the resilience of communication networks, reported largely unaffected networks after the latest quake, especially internet services.
Sandra Oudkirk, the de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan, praised the response in a message to the Taiwanese people carried on Facebook. “Taiwan has demonstrated a successful model of disaster prevention, disaster management, and humanitarian rescue to communities around the world,” she wrote.
Faye, a 44-year-old former tax inspector, is Africa’s youngest democratically elected head of state. And judging by his policy promises — which include reforming the euro-pegged CFA currency system — Senegal could be headed towards a divergent relationship with France.
Winning the contest in the first round and at his first attempt suggests Faye is a popular candidate whose 18 competitors never stood a chance. In reality, Faye owes his rise to 49-year-old Ousmane Sonko, Senegal’s best known opposition politician.
Sonko has been the government’s loudest critic since finishing third in the 2019 elections when Sall was re-elected. His political machine tapped into youth disillusionment over Sall’s struggle to solve an unemployment crisis that has accelerated a deadly migration-by-boat wave to Europe.
Faye met Sonko during their time as tax officials, and joined the latter in politics after the political party PASTEF was formed in 2014, according to Faye’s campaign biography, climbing to the role of general secretary.
Chosen to inherit this movement after Sonko was disqualified from running for the presidency, Faye will enter the top job as a relatively unknown politician. “Diomaye is Sonko” was his campaign’s slogan in the lead up to Sunday. But it will be Faye who takes the oath of office when Sall leaves on April 2.
Two weeks ago, he was in prison. That’s been the remarkable trajectory of Faye’s life over the last fortnight. He was behind bars on various charges, including defamation, prior to his release on March 14.
Senegal, usually lauded as one of Africa’s most stable democracies, was still reeling from President Macky Sall’s move to delay the vote to select his successor. But, following Sunday’s vote, 44-year-old Faye is set to become Senegal’s youngest ever president — and the country could be on the brink of a generational shift.
Faye’s rapid ascent and relative youth suggest he could genuinely become an agent of change. His age clearly sets him apart on a continent dominated by elderly leaders. For example, he’s less than half the age of Cameroon’s 91-year-old president. With that comes an entirely different perspective that should make him more attuned to the experiences of young people in Senegal, 60% of whom are aged under 25.
Some young people are so desperate for a brighter future that, faced with a lack of job opportunities, they try to reach Europe in small boats. Many don’t make it. Faye campaigned on his vow to shake up the established order through policies such as a currency change and renegotiating oil and gas contracts.
The scenes of rapturous celebrations following the election are heartwarming. But I’ve seen similar outpourings of joy after other elections, so I’m all too aware that it doesn’t necessarily end well. I recall the fanfare in Senegal 12 years ago when Sall defeated his predecessor, Abdoulaye Wade, who was chasing an unconstitutional third term. But, under Sall, wealth hasn’t been distributed across Senegal’s relatively strong economy.
The hope is that Faye will bring a genuinely fresh approach. Unlike Sall — who had already served as prime minister when he became president — he is a political neophyte. That novice status could prove to be his biggest strength.
The president of the Reconquest! party, Éric Zemmour, was sentenced on Thursday, March 28 by the Paris Court of Appeal for insult of a racist nature, for having described in 2018 the first name of the former columnist of the Canal+ group Hapsatou Sy as an “insult to France”.
In its judgment, the court confirmed the judgment rendered at first instance in January 2024. The correctional court had found the far-right polemist guilty of “public insult because of origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion” and fined him 4,000 euros.
Éric Zemmour had also been sentenced to pay 3,000 euros in damages and 2,000 euros in lawyers’ fees. On Thursday, the Court of Appeal also ordered the founder of the Reconquest party To pay an additional 3,000 euros to Hapsatou Sy for the procedural costs.
The incriminated remarks were made in 2018 during the recording of the “Terriens du Dimanche” show, broadcast on C8.
“It is your first name that is an insult to France. France is not a virgin land, it is a land with a history, with a past. Your first name is not in history …” Éric Zemmour told Hapsatou Sy. He added that the ex-journalist’s mother should have taken a “calendar name” and called it “Corinne for example”.
At the hearing before the Court of Appeal on February 29, the Advocate General considered that, the first name being an “essential attribute” of identity, “attacking Ms. Sy’s first name because of its supposed foreign origin is a disrespect or even contempt for France”.
Hapsatou Sy had detailed the consequences of these remarks on her personal life. “I receive 3 to 4,000 hate messages a day, I am harassed online, I am targeted by death threats, calls for my rape and stoning,” she said.
On Thursday she greeted is “a great victory that surpasses her” and the “end of a long ordeal that cost me my career and my health”. “We welcome this condemnation, which reminds us that the law is clear on the subject and that there are no first names and second-class citizens, contrary to what Mr. Zemmour would like,” added his lawyer, Me Antoine Vey.
Éric Zemmour, for his part, said that he intended to appeal in cassation. In a statement, he denounced “these politicized judges (who) want to condemn (him) to intimidate the French”. “The political judges had Fillon, they won’t have me,” he concluded.
Federal authorities detained a former police officer accused of leading the armed wing of the violent Juarez Cartel in northern Mexico, the government said Thursday.
Marco Antonio Guzman, who had several aliases including “El Brad Pitt,” was captured in the U.S. border state of Chihuahua along with two alleged accomplices, according to a federal police statement.
Guzman, 34, was brought to the Mexican capital Thursday and shown, handcuffed, to the news media.
Police said Guzman was involved in the June 15, 2010 car bomb explosion that killed a federal police officer and two civilians.
They also accuse him of being involved in drug-trafficking operations across Chihuahua. The state is one of the worst-affected areas of the drug war. It is the state of deadly Ciudad Juarez, where an estimated 3,100 people were killed in 2010 alone.
A federal official who was not authorized to speak on the record said Guzman’s nickname “El Brad Pitt” comes from a disguise he wore when he served as a lookout for the Juarez cartel.
To go unnoticed, he tried to look like a tourist wearing his hair long, a baseball cap and a camera around his neck. According to the official, gang associates said Guzman looked like Pitt in a scene from the American film “Spy Game” about CIA agents, in which the actor wore a similar outfit.
The nickname apparently stuck.
Guzman had a $42,000 (500,000 pesos) reward for his capture, and may have been planning another such bombing; federal police said in a statement that he had been responsible for acquiring another load of explosives seized in Ciudad Juarez on April 25.
He also allegedly participated in a videotaped killing that was posted on a video-sharing site.
Also Thursday, federal police said they arrested a leader of the so-called “Zodiac” kidnapping gang, whose member used the signs of the zodiac as nicknames.
Suspect Dhither Camarillo Palafox, alias “Taurus,” was arrested in the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun on Friday; alleged associates nicknamed “Sagittarius” and “Aquarius” were arrested in 2009. The group’s other leader, nicknamed “Cancer,” was detained in 2005.
The group allegedly carried out kidnappings in and around Mexico City.
While Marvin Gaye’s life was cut short, his impact on the music industry continues today as the singer produced numerous hits and helped shape the sound of Motown throughout the 1960s. Often referred to as the Prince of Motown or the Prince of Soul, the artist gained high praise, releasing 17 albums throughout his time in the spotlight. With his last album, Midnight Love, released in 1982, fans of Gaye received a special treat when news broke that over 60 lost tracks of the singer surfaced in Belgium.
With many iconic singers passing away over the years, fans often wonder what new music from them would sound like or what they were working on at the time of their death. Well, for Gaye, he stayed with musician Charles Dumolin in Ostend, Belgium before passing away. And while staying with him, Gaye apparently left 30 tapes behind. But that wasn’t all as the Dumolin family also held onto notebooks, letters, and costumes from the icon.
Having kept the items in their possession for over 40 years, the family lawyer, Alex Trappeniers, discussed the treasures with the BBC. “We can open a time capsule here and share the music of Marvin with the world. It’s very clear. He’s very present.” Sharing some of the items, the lawyer added, “A few of them are complete and a few of them are as good as ‘Sexual Healing,’ because it was made in the same time. There was one song that when I listened to it for ten seconds I found the music was in my head all day, the words were in my head all day, like a moment of planetary alignment.”
What The Law Has To Say About The Lost Collection Of Marvin Gaye
According to the law in Belgium, ownership of an item happens when in possession for 30 years. That means, that Gaye’s items are legally the property of the Dumolin family. Trappeniers insisted, “Marvin gave it to them and said, ‘Do whatever you want with it’ and he never came back. That’s important.”
While the Dumolin family owns the collection, the law does not encompass intellectual property. That means that the family can’t release Gaye’s collection without legal repercussions.
Trade unions have called on France’s 5.7 million public sectors workers to walk out on march 19th in a push for better pay and conditions, a month after the government announced some €10 billion in public spending cuts
One in five of France’s active population works in the public sector – they teach, provide healthcare, and ensure a host of administrative services that keep the country ticking over.
But their union reps insist wages are not keeping up with inflation and working conditions are deteriorating.
Official data shows that the average net monthly salary in the public sector in France in 2021 was €2,500.
The gross monthly salary for teachers ranges from around €1,900 to €3,300, depending on experience. Nurses have very similar pay scales.
However, “10 percent of public sector workers earn less than €1,500 per month,” Mylène Jacquot points out. “So you can’t say civil servants are better paid or paid too much, and that changes should be made only on merit. That’s a totally ideological notion.”
Following a major earthquake, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident beginning on 11 March 2011. All three cores largely melted in the first three days.
The accident was rated level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, due to high radioactive releases over days 4 to 6, eventually a total of some 940 PBq (I-131 eq).
All four Fukushima Daiichi reactors were written off due to damage in the accident – 2719 MWe net.
After two weeks, the three reactors (units 1-3) were stable with water addition and by July they were being cooled with recycled water from the new treatment plant. Official ‘cold shutdown condition’ was announced in mid-December.
Apart from cooling, the basic ongoing task was to prevent release of radioactive materials, particularly in contaminated water leaked from the three units. This task became newsworthy in August 2013.
There have been no deaths or cases of radiation sickness from the nuclear accident, but over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes as a preventative measure. Government nervousness has delayed the return of many.
Official figures show that there have been 2313 disaster-related deaths among evacuees from Fukushima prefecture. Disaster-related deaths are in addition to the about 19,500 that were killed by the earthquake or tsunami.
Is it a spice? Is it a dish? Curry means many things to many people around the world.
It seems that every country has a love affair with curry. From the mild curries of China to the spicy dishes of Southern India, these exotic spice blends have transformed global cuisine. In Europe, curry powder has been added to all kinds of dishes and chicken tikka masala has been declared Britain’s national dish. But how did curry conquer Britain and the rest of the world, and why has it proved so popular?
The spice trade and the beginnings of curry We tend to think of British curry as a very recent addition to our cuisine, but we’ve actually been experimenting with spices for hundreds of years. It’s thought that medieval Crusaders returned from the Middle East with a taste for the unusual flavours they discovered there and brought them back to Britain. Use of spices such as caraway, cinnamon and cloves began to increase in Medieval Europe and a profitable trade sprang up. But the origins of curry date back much further than that. Historians believe that coastal traders and Buddhist monks travelled around Asia in the seventh century, moving aromatic spices around India, Thailand, Indonesia, China and the Phillipines. The Victorians and their love of curry Curry-style dishes were mentioned in 18th-century cookbooks but they didn’t become a huge hit in Britain until the reign of Queen Victoria, who is said to have enjoyed the curry dishes prepared for her by her Indian staff. Isabella Beeton even published curry recipes in her Book of Household Management in 1861, but these creamy, floury sauces with a sprinkle of curry powder and chopped apples bore little resemblance to the rich and fragrant authentic curries from India.
The 20th century: Curry takes off around the world At the beginning of the 1900s curry was still a fashionable dish; chicken curry with rice was even served to passengers on the Titanic. But it was down to the Second World War and an increase in immigration that meant it really took off. In 1949, the currywurst – a frankfurter covered in a tomato and curry sauce – was invented by a Berlin housewife who traded alcohol with foreign soldiers in return for spices. She then added curry powder to her regular frankfurter sauce and the rest is history. According to the Currywurst Museum in Berlin, 800million currywursts are now sold each year in Germany alone. Elsewhere in Europe, Indian families started to run cafés, restaurants and fish and chip shops, serving curry sauce alongside battered cod and chips. Curry powder was now being added to recipes around the world, leading to the creation of dishes such as Singapore noodles, mulligatawny soup, and tandoori-style grilled meats and satays.
Curry politics and chicken tikka masala As the often-told story goes, a British customer at an Indian restaurant in the 1950s asked the chef for some sauce to go with his chicken tikka. The chef quickly stirred together a creamy, spiced tomato-based sauce, inventing the chicken tikka masala. There is some controversy as to where this took place (Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham or even India) but it soon became Britain’s favourite curry. It even became an unlikely political tool, when Foreign Secretary Robin Cook referred to it in a 2001 speech as a symbol of cultural unity. “It is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences,” he said, proclaiming it our national dish.
The reason for its global success Perhaps the main reason that curry has been such a global success is down to its versatility. The heat, flavour and texture of the dish can be adapted to suit the individual tastes of different nations; for example, the pale, mild curries of China and the sweeter, fruity curries of Japan. The British like their curries smothered in sauce, while many Indian curries are dry. Indonesian cooks have added spices such as cumin and turmeric to their own dishes, creating silky, fragrant coconut-based curries. Whether it’s fish, tofu, meat, vegetables or pulses, everything goes with curry. The trendy fusion scene also owes much to these flavours, with the creation of Indian-style burritos, tikka pizzas, Asian tapas and even pasta served with a curry sauce. All this goes to show how versatile and broad the term ‘curry’ can be and how it’s become so well-loved around the world.
In 2020 an invisible threat has visibly altered the world. Governments and key institutions have had to implement decisive responses to the danger posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Imposed change increase the likelihood that alternative explanations take hold.
In a proportion of the general population there was strong scepticism, fear of being misled, and false conspiracy theories.
The prevalence of conspiracy thinking about the pandemic and its associations with reduced adherence to government guidelines is difficult to estimate.
In modern society, conspiracy theories are a widespread phenomenon that can be defined as a belief that a group of people secretly works to achieve some malevolent goal (Bale, 2007). An important aspect of conspiracy theories is that they are more likely to occur during social crisis (van Prooijen & Douglas, 2017), and COVID-19 pandemic, with global health, political, and economic consequences, represents such a situation.
The importance of examining how belief in conspiracy theories relates to people’s behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic is demonstrated by studies conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which have shown that agreement with conspiracy theories was associated with disregarding public health advice in several areas. For example, Jolley and Douglas (2014a) found a negative relationship between anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and vaccination intentions. In addition, participants exposed to climate change conspiracy theories report a decreased intention to reduce their carbon footprint (Jolley & Douglas, 2014b). Regarding the relationship between epidemic-related conspiracy beliefs and behaviour, studies have shown that the likelihood of having unsafe sex is higher among AIDS conspiracy believers (Bogart & Thorburn, 2005; Grebe & Nattrass, 2012).
These findings imply that belief in conspiracy theories may pose a threat to public health and highlight the importance of investigating them further in the context of a pandemic. The content and characteristics of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 are not much different from those related to previous epidemics (e.g., Zika virus, Wood, 2018).
Most theories include the belief that the coronavirus is man-made virus created to control population, possibly via 5G technology or global vaccination. Theories also include the belief that COVID-19 is no more dangerous than regular flu because mortality rates are lower than those reported by government officials and health care providers.
Research on how conspiracy beliefs relate to the behaviour has shown that people high in conspiracy mentality are less likely to comply with preventive behaviours recommended by the government (Marinthe et al., 2020). Furthermore, Allington and Dhavan (2020) found a negative relationship between belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and compliance with public health recommendations. In the same study, 37% of participants who reported agreement that 5G technology was associated with COVID-19 also believed that there was no good reason for the lockdown.
Misinformation narratives that emerged during the pandemic did not focus solely on healthaspects. In fact, many of them revolved around political and societal topics, making misleading or false claims around policy actions
Pre-existing conspiracy theories were often the base for these stories. Some of the most circulated topics revolved around the non-natural origin of the virus (especially early during the pandemic), the orchestration of the pandemic, or hidden purposes related to the development of the vaccine. The latter narratives were becoming more prevalent over time, with vaccination becoming more relevant
The consequences of misinformation for health issues are important. The spread of false and misleading information, as well as information manipulation, often parallels distrust in public institutions, political leaders, and governments.
Misinformation poses a threat to social cohesion and democracy and, as such, it should be a concern for all policy areas.
The joint EU election list formed by the French Socialist Party and leftist “Place Publique” led by Raphaël Glucksmann scored 13% in polls published on Wednesday and could be a cause for concern within Macron’s Renaissance camp that their core voter base is shifting to the left.
In a new poll published in French daily Challenges on Wednesday, the EU list headed by Glucksmann was polling at 13%, up from 9% in December.
While the far-right Rassemblement National’s EU list, led by Jordan Bardella, and the Renaissance list, led by Valérie Hayer, are still ahead of Glucksmann’s EU list in the polls at 30% and 18%, respectively, the latter has been gaining ground in the polls. Support for Macron’s party is now down from the 22.4% it received in the last EU elections in 2019.
However, this could become a serious headache for Macron, as Glucksmann voters were, at least for the most part, former Macron supporters. Voting patterns also show that pro-EU liberals, especially the younger generation, are shifting further to the left, partly to sanction the government’s shift to more right-wing policies.
“Twenty per cent of the voters who voted for Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the 2022 presidential election are now expected to vote for a left-wing list — mainly the one led by Raphaël Glucksmann,” wrote Gilles Fincheslstein, director general of the Jean Jaurès Foundation, a think tank, in a note published last week.
He added, “Renaissance has gone from being an original all-purpose central party to a classic bourgeois and elderly centre-right party.”
Glucksmann wants a more federalist Europe
Glucksmann’s EU candidacy centres around promoting a more federalist Europe, renewed rounds of EU joint debt, shared EU defence capabilities and increased support for Ukraine.
Growing support for Glucksmann’s list has caught the eye of Renaissance as Hayer has already attempted to ramp up calls for hesitant voters to stay true to Macron.
“Raphaël Glucksmann and I vote the same way on 90% [of issues] in the European Parliament. He should be with us, and he knows it,” she told Le Figaro in late February – a claim that was actively rejected by the social democrat, blaming Renaissance for their lack of support on EU social files.
Meanwhile, Macron has recently made significant social policy announcements to win back voters from the centre-left.
Late last week, a video was leaked of Macron agreeing to include the notion of consent in France’s legal definition of rape — after actively fighting against the very idea at the European level in early February.
“What an instrumentalisation of the women’s cause just a few weeks before the European elections,” French MEP Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (EPP) told Euractiv.
“Macron has realised that he made a mistake and will be attacked during the EU election campaign. It’s a manipulation, and his left-wing allies will certainly remind him of it,” she added.
“Renaissance cannot be deemed a pro-EU list,” Aurore Lalucq, an MEP and co-president of Glucksmann’s Place publique party, told Le Pointon Tuesday.
Hayer has since reversed course, presenting Glucksmann’s views as no different from those of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) — a strategy that has yet to bear fruit in the polls.
At least 52,250 people have been killed over the last 14 years in Nigeria just for being Christian.
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) indicates in a report in 2023 : “Since the 2009 Islamic uprising, 52,250 Christians and 34,000 moderate Muslims have been butchered or hacked to death.”
“30,250 of those have been killed since 2015, when President Muhhamadu Buhari came to power,” authors of the report by the Intersociety, a research and investigative rights group, which has been monitoring and investigating religious persecution and other forms of religious violence by State and non-State actors across Nigeria since 2010, say.
According to the report by the human rights group that does research and investigation by direct contacts with the victims, eyewitnesses, media tracking, review of credible local and international reports, interviews and closed sources among other methods, thousands of Christian deaths are attributed to “Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen”.
“The 52,250 Christian deaths in Nigeria in fourteen years recorded addition of 9,250 Christian deaths from the July 2021 figure of 43,000; out of which, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen accounted for 6,000 Christian deaths and security forces, Jihadist Fulani Bandits, BH, ISWAP, Ansaru and others 3,250”
“Buhari’s radical Islamism since 2015 had killed 30,250 Christians and attacked 18,000 churches and 2,200 Christian schools,” the authors of the report say, and add that since 2009, “14 million Christians have been uprooted and forced to flee their homes and 800 Christian communities attacked”.
Authors of the Intersociety report say that “Christians of Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, Niger, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Kebbi worst affected in the attacks,” and that Christians living in Eastern Nigeria have been “worst hit in Nigerian military killings and property destructions on ethno-religious grounds.”
“Hypocrisies of Nigerian Christian leaders may turn church buildings into Turkish church monuments in 50 years’ time,” the authors of the report further say, adding, “Progenitors of Christian converts were more protected during the Oracular Period under Pre-Christian Papacy than present.”
In the 2023 investigation, Intersociety researchers found that “no fewer than 1,041 defenseless Christians were hacked to death by Nigeria’s Jihadists in the first 100 days of 2023 or 1st Jan to 10th April 2023.”
Their investigations established that “not less than 380 Christians were slaughtered by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in 100 days in Benue, 102 in Kaduna, 150 in Christian parts of Niger State (Paikoro, Munya, Shiroro, Rafi, etc), 100 deaths in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa by BH/ISWAP); 32 Christian deaths in Plateau, 20 in Ondo, 11 in Edo, 10 in Delta as well as Kebbi 10 deaths, Bauchi 9 deaths, Taraba 14 deaths, Katsina 10 deaths, Enugu 6 deaths; and 60 deaths arising from the military killings in the East since Jan 2023 and others 50 deaths.”
French politicians from across the political spectrum Wednesday denounced what they called an “Islamist” attack on education after a school principal resigned following death threats over a Muslim headscarf.
The headmaster at a high school and college in eastern Paris quit after receiving death threats online following an altercation with a student, officials told AFP on Tuesday.
In late February, he had asked three students to remove their headscarves on school premises, but one refused and an altercation ensued, according to prosecutors. He later received death threats online.
According to a school letter sent to teachers, pupils and parents on Tuesday, the principal stood down for “security reasons”, while education officials said he had taken “early retirement”.
“It’s a disgrace,” Bruno Retailleau, the head of the right-wing Republicans faction in the Senate upper house, said on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.
“We can’t accept it,” Boris Vallaud, the head of the Socialist deputies in the National Assembly lower house, told television broadcaster France 2, calling the incident “a collective failure”.
Marion Marechal, the granddaughter of far-right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen and a popular far-right politician herself, spoke on Sud Radio of a “defeat of the state” in the face of “the Islamist gangrene”.
Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, also took aim at “an Islamist movement”.
“Authority lies with school heads and teachers, and we have a duty to support this educational community,” Bregeon said.
A 26-year-old man has been arrested for making death threats against the principal on the internet. He is due to stand trial in April.
France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim community.
In 2004, authorities banned school children from wearing “signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation” such as headscarves, turbans or kippas on the basis of the country’s secular laws which are meant to guarantee neutrality in state institutions.
They presented no evidence, only aspersions of suspicion and counterfactual speculation, but in Russia’s eyes, the culprit was clear: Ukraine.
This was despite a cell of the Islamic State quickly claiming responsibility for Friday’s attack that killed at least 137 people, and Ukraine denying involvement.
The allegations that Ukraine was behind it were the first shots in a disinformation war that has clouded the hearts and minds of people trying to come to grips with the shocking attack.
First came Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who was once regarded as a mild reformer but who has become a vehement hawk since the start of the Ukraine war, now in its third year.
“Terrorists understand only retaliatory terror … if it is established that these are terrorists of the Kyiv regime, it is impossible to deal with them and their ideological inspirers differently,” he wrote on the Telegram message app about 90 minutes after first news came of the attack.
While not overtly accusing Ukraine, the strong implication was in line with Russia’s portrayal of Ukraine as a nest of vipers and suggested that Russia was prepared to step up its air assaults on Ukraine, which already had notably intensified in recent days.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry quickly grabbed the baton, not only rejecting Russia’s accusations but suggesting that the brutal shootings and fire may have been a false flag operation.
A ministry statement on Friday evening referenced the 1999 apartment bombings that many critics have suggested were done by Russian security agents to justify launching the second Chechnya war.
“There are no red lines for (President Vladimir) Putin’s dictatorship. It is ready to kill its own citizens for political purposes, just as it has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians during the war against Ukraine as a result of missile attacks, artillery shelling and torture,” the ministry said at the time.
The claim of responsibility by IS-K, the Islamic State’s Afghan branch, did nothing to quiet the accusations, even though the group is a reliable villain to almost every country and despite Russia having claimed to have thwarted an IS-planned assault on a synagogue this month.
The United States’ confirmation of the IS claim only hardened Russia’s position.
“On what basis do officials in Washington draw any conclusions about anyone’s innocence in the midst of a tragedy? If the United States has or had reliable information in this regard, then it must be immediately transferred to the Russian side,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
“If there is no such data, then the White House has no right to issue indulgences to anyone,” she said.
All that was on Friday.
On Saturday, Russian officers chased down four suspects in the Bryansk region, about 350 kilometres south of Moscow. Bryansk is on the border with Ukraine and Russians were outraged.
“Now we know in which country these bloody b**tards planned to hide from persecution — Ukraine,” Zakharova said.
In the afternoon, Putin, having waited about 19 hours to address the nation about the bloodshed, claimed without presenting evidence that the suspects were aiming to pass through a border “window” that had been arranged in advance.
How such passage could be arranged between warring countries was also unexplained. On Monday, Putin said the attackers were “radical Islamists,” but that it still needed to be explained why they tried to flee to Ukraine.
Over the weekend, digital bystanders chimed in on social media and messaging services. Some found it suspicious that the United States in early March had issued a warning saying it had intelligence indicating an imminent terrorist attack.
To some, that suggested that Washington didn’t give enough information to Russia about what it knew. To others, it indicated that Russian security services were too inept to fend off an attack even when warned.
Overtly bogus information also came in the attack’s wake.
Russia’s state broadcaster NTV ran a video that appeared to show Ukraine’s top security official, Oleksiy Danilov, saying, “Is it fun in Moscow today? … I would like to believe that we will arrange such fun for them more often.”
But it turned out to be an AI-generated deepfake, said digital sleuth Shayan Sardarizadeh of the BBC.
For some, implications and manipulation were too subtle and they chose all-out assertions.
“Ukraine did it. They will pay,” American commentator Jackson Hinkle, who recently interviewed Zakharova, wrote on X.
Hinkle regularly spreads false information on social media. The Russia-Ukraine war has been one of his frequent targets, with Hinkle often posting content that furthers Russia’s disinformation narratives.
While four suspects have been charged and held in pre-trial custody, with three of them pleading guilty and seven others detained, it seems clear the warring narratives of who’s really responsible will continue to play out, adding to the wealth of conspiracy theories and propaganda accompanying the Ukraine war, and fuelling further conflict.
A major Baltimore bridge collapsedlike a house of cards early Tuesday after it was struck by a container ship, sending six people to their deaths in the dark waters below, and closing one of the country’s busiest ports.
By nightfall, the desperate search for six people who were working on the bridge and vanished when it fell apart had become a grim search for bodies.
The pilot of the cargo freighter that knocked down a highway bridge into Baltimore Harbor had radioed for tugboat help and reported a power loss minutes earlier, federal safety officials said on Wednesday, citing audio from the ship’s “black box” data recorder.
The economic fallout could be staggering. The port handles more automobile and farm equipment freight than any other in the country, as well as container freight and bulk goods ranging from sugar to coal.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the 8,000 jobs are “directly associated” with port operations, which generate $2 million a day in wages.Re
French shipping tycoon Rodolphe Saade has agreed to buy France’s leading rolling news channel BFM TV off Patrick Drahi’s debt-laden Altice group, their respective companies said on Friday, as billionaires vie to control the French media landscape.
Saade’s Marseille-based shipping company CMA CGM will acquire the French media unit of telecoms group Altice, which includes BFM TV as well as radio RMC, for an enterprise value of 1.55 billion euros ($1.69 billion).
The move will allow Saade, who is CMA CGM’s chief executive, to consolidate a growing media business in France, while the deal will also help ease finances at Altice, which has been trying to sell assets to cut down debt since a rapid rise in interest rates.
BFM TV rose to prominence in France in the 2010s, becoming a ubiquitous sight in bars and cafes across the country and often setting the media narrative, with its ticker closely watched by political advisers and business leaders.
Its change of ownership to a more deep-pocketed tycoon will be scrutinised by the French political class, at a time when hard-right news channel CNews, owned by billionaire Vincent Bollore, poses a growing challenge to BFM.
This is not the first foray into the media world by the secretive Saade family.
Last year, it launched a Sunday newspaper that competes directly with the Journal du Dimanche, a formerly respected weekly newspaper taken over by Bollore and turned into what critics say is a far-right mouthpiece.
A source close to CMA CGM told Reuters at the time that Lebanon-born Saade was keen for its media to offer a “nuanced” view of the world and not “fuel the flames of extremism.”
“With this planned acquisition, we have the ambition to continue our long-term development in the media industry,” Saade said in a statement on Friday.
Media analysts said the high price tag agreed by CMA CGM – a multiple of 14 times Altice Media’s core profit – probably reflected the extra level of power and influence owning the well-known media brands would give Saade.
“He doesn’t want to wait five years before becoming an ambitious media group,” Philippe Bailly, a media consultant at Paris-based NPA Conseil, said. “It’s a rather generous ratio. There’s probably a little premium due to the influence this deal gives you.”
Altice’s founder and owner Drahi, who recently vowed to cut his company’s massive debt through asset disposals, said the deal would allow BFM and the RMC radio station to continue to grow under Saade’s ownership.
BFM says it has 12 million daily viewers. CMA CGM said it has asked Altice Media’s management team to remain in place.
Cash-rich CMA CGM already owns French regional newspapers La Tribune, La Provence and Corse Matin and holds a more than 10% stake in M6 MMTP.PA, France’s second-biggest private TV network.
The organisation of the Olympic Games continues to face challenges as the French capital prepares to host the Games from 26 July 2024. As well as the well-known security concerns, there is also the issue of the poor quality of the water in the Seine.
The third Olympic Games to be held in the French capital from 26 July to 8 September (including both the Olympic and Paralympic Games) have suffered major setbacks. This time, the quality of the water in the Seine has become a cause for concern. This river is not only the setting for the impressive opening day, with a 6km ceremony and delegations sailing through the centre of Paris on special barges, but also for the open water swimming events (10km).
Although the issue is not new, it has a long history, including the cancellation of last year’s Open Water World Cup due to “the water quality in the Seine being below acceptable levels for the health of the swimmers”. These general tests, carried out a year before the start of the Games, did not produce the desired results. The marathon swimming competition between the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont Alma was cancelled because “the quality standards of the International Federation were clearly exceeded”.
This longstanding problem persists and, despite expectations of improvement, acceptable levels have not yet been achieved. Although some progress has been made, water quality has not improved at the expected rate. Analyses carried out between 2015 and 2023, sent to AFP by Paris City Hall, show significant fluctuations last summer, with several peaks in the concentration of one of the two bacterial indicators of faecal contamination, Escherichia coli.
According to the 2006 European Bathing Water Directive, none of the 14 water sampling points in Paris reached a sufficient quality level in 2023, mainly from June to September, raising many questions about the Summer Olympics. The concentration of E. coli exceeded the maximum permitted level (900 colony-forming units/100 ml) at all points. The same was true, although to a lesser extent, of Enterococcus faecalis, another organism that lives in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and other mammals and is considered harmful to human health and potentially life-threatening if ingested.
The latter bacteria slightly exceeded the required threshold at the Ivry Bridge (south-east) and the Garigliano Bridge (south-west): 330 CFU / 100 mL, exceeding the promising results of the summer of 2022 (sufficient levels were reached for both bacteria).
Although the results have not yet lived up to expectations, hopes remain high for the world’s biggest sporting event. Five projects are underway (to be completed before the start of the Games) to increase the storage capacity of the sewerage network, thereby limiting the use of the Seine as a sewer and the pollution it causes. In addition to the cancellation of the swimming marathon, there were also problems with the triathlon and paratriathlon held in the same area from 16-20 August 2023; two days of competition were cancelled due to water contamination, this time caused by a faulty valve, according to the city council.
There were also problems with sampling, with biochemical tests failing to produce results due to technical problems. Since then, Paris City Hall has announced that the entire analysis process will be duplicated for the summer of 2024 (two samples, two engineers, two laboratories).
In addition to these five projects, the Austerlitz reservoir is under construction to store and treat water from the Seine. The new infrastructure to absorb heavy rainfall, including the 50,000 m3 Austerlitz reservoir, will be ready and would help to reduce undesirable levels of bacteria that can cause serious health problems for competitors and the general public. Significant investment has been made in infrastructure. However, this may not be enough in the event of heavy rainfall in the French capital, which could lead to the suspension, postponement or even cancellation of events on the Seine.
Exceptional rainfall is feared by the prefecture. In the event of heavy rainfall, untreated water – a mixture of rain and sewage – can be discharged into the river, increasing bacteria levels to dangerous levels for the health of competitors and potentially forcing the cancellation of events. What other plans are there for these challenges that are largely dependent on nature? An alternative plan would be to postpone events for a few days without changing locations, but this would affect the swimmers’ preparation for what is for many the most important event of their lives.
Waiting until the last moment is not a good plan for athletes who have to add an extra psychological element to their preparation, the psychological burden of preparing for a competition that may or may not take place on the scheduled day (tests will be conducted in the days leading up to and including the competition day, and could become dangerous at any moment due to natural effects). A Plan C could be to find an alternative river or even to hold the competition in the sea (France has the Mediterranean, with very calm waters, and the Atlantic, which is a little more intense), where there is less human and natural interference, thus ensuring that the athletes can compete.
Time and results, as in all aspects of life, will determine whether the original plan, albeit very risky, will ultimately succeed or whether the largest Olympic swimming event will have to be modified on the fly.
The French state weather bureau has replaced staff with an automated programme which has made repeated mistakes.
The workers at France’s weather forecaster Météo France went on strike over the automation of certain services that they say is harming the credibility of the outfit.
Scientific American published a story in early January on the use of AI in weather forecasting and, as one might imagine, it’s a topic of great interest to us.
Artificial intelligence is making waves in a number of fields, and atmospheric science is among them. AI forecast models like GraphCast and MetNet have proven they can successfully predict weather phenomena faster than traditional models, and they require less raw computing power to do so.
While speed and computer power are important facets of weather prediction, accuracy is paramount. That’s where AI models falter in a few crucial ways.
AI models rely on the statistical analysis of historic training data to predict the future rather than a deep understanding of atmospheric physics. As such, they excel at predicting events they’ve seen before. But rare, extreme events are becoming more commonplace with climate change.
Kim Wood is an associate professor of atmospheric science and hydrology at the University of Arizona. She told Scientific American that AI models struggle with the kinds of rare events “that can change people’s lives forever.”
Moreover, the models require high-quality training data if they’re going to nail the basics.
GWSC’s Director, Mike Gremillion, is cautiously optimistic about the use of AI in forecasting. He was a weather forecaster for the U.S. Department of Defense for almost 30 years, so he is keenly aware of the importance of good data.
“A model’s output is only as good as the data that feeds it,” he said. “We’ve made some incredible advances over the years in how we measure weather conditions and interpolate data, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Thankfully, atmospheric scientists all over the world continue to improve how we collect, distribute, and interpret global weather data. Those kinds of improvements can contribute to both traditional and AI models.
Will AI models completely replace traditional models and teams of human forecasters? It’s unlikely. Human forecasters are still better equipped to interpret model results through the lens of their own regional or topical expertise.
But they are very likely to become powerful tools that accompany and even progress physics-based forecasting. And that’s a rosy outlook for those of us who depend on good weather predictions.
Nationwide recurring electrical blackouts in Venezuela began in March 2019. Experts and state-run Corpoelec (Corporación Eléctrica Nacional) sources attribute the electricity shortages to lack of maintenance and to a lack of technical expertise in the country resulting from a brain drain; Nicolás Maduro’s administration attributes them to sabotage. Since March, various nationwide blackouts occurred in the country.
The first widespread blackout began on 7 March 2019 at 4:56 pm local time (GMT-4); it lasted through 14 March, when power was restored to much of the country. It was the largest power outage in the country’s history, and affected the electricity sector in Venezuela in most of its 23 states, as well as Roraimaborder state of Brazil, causing serious problems in hospitals and clinics, industry, transport and in water service. At least 43 deaths resulted. On 12 March, power returned to some parts of the country, but Caracas remained only partially powered and western regions near the border with Colombia remained dark. Power outages persisted in some areas for many days after 14 March.
Between 14 and 16 of Venezuela’s 23 states were again without power from 25 March to 28 March; at least four people died as a result of the three-day lack of power. Another blackout started in the evening of 29 March, followed by another 24 hours later. During the month of March, Venezuela was without power for at least 10 days overall.
Airdrops of food, a new sea route to deliver aid by ship, and trucks entering through two border crossings haven’t been enough to stave off starvation across Gaza more than five months into the war there.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza face “imminent” famine that may already have struckthe north. More than two dozen children have died of malnourishment, Gaza’s Ministry of Health says.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee says 210,000 people in northern Gaza are at “catastrophe,” its most severe assessment. The IPC committee adds that the entire population of Gaza “is facing high levels of acute food insecurity.”
To reach people who mostneed food, community leaders — a network of traditional family clans — are being recruited to help distribute food inside Gaza and fill a growing security void.
The nascent plan could help families in need. It could also lay the ground for a new security framework in Gaza when the war is over, tying the struggle to regulate aid to the greater battle over who should control the territory.
Here are five things to know.
1. The U.N. is looking to local groups to distribute aid in Gaza
The United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Jamie McGoldrick, describes a complex process that involves working with “community leaders” and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as well as coordinating with the Israeli military and Gaza’s police on aid routes and distribution.
2. Israel plays a central role in the Gaza food crisis
Aid agencies say Israel must open more border crossings and let more aid in.
3. Palestinian clans in Gaza reject cooperation with Israel
Right now, aid is the most valuable currency in Gaza, but traditional family clan leaders are in a tough spot: They do not want to be seen as taking part in a plan to replace Hamas.
While prominent families and clans have had conflicts with Hamas over the years, and some are armed and known to be involved in drug trafficking and smuggling, many refuse to collaborate with Israel
4. Efforts are complicated by targeting and threats
5. People are in dire need of more aid
With agricultural production decimated by the war, Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people relies entirely on humanitarian assistance allowed in by Israel.
South Korea’s government banned major rallies in its capital and declared a health emergency in its fourth largest city as 100 new virus cases were reported Friday, bringing the country’s total to 204.
The spike forced officials to focus on steps to contain the domestic spread of the disease, not just its entry from abroad.
Most of the new cases have been reported since Wednesday. The increase, especially in and around Daegu city in the southeast, has raised fears the outbreak is overwhelming the region’s medical system. Many of the cases have been linked to a church in the city.
In the capital, Seoul, officials banned major downtown rallies and shut down a big park to avoid mass public gatherings where the virus could spread. Workers in protective gear also sprayed disinfectant in the city’s subway.
And the first three cases were confirmed in South Korea’s 600,000-member military, a navy sailor, an army officer and an air force officer who all had links to Daegu.
Prime Minister Chung Se-kyun said in a televised statement the central government will concentrate its support to the southeastern region to ease a shortage in sickbeds, medical personnel and equipment.
“A month into the (COVID-19) outbreak, we have entered an emergency phase,” Chung said. “Our efforts until now had been focused on blocking the illness from entering the country. But we will now shift the focus on preventing the illness from spreading further in local communities.”
The surge of infections in Daegu and several cases in Seoul with unclear infection routes forced government officials to acknowledge Thursday for the first time that the virus was circulating in the local population.
Initial cases of the illness in South Korea had been connected to China, where the virus has infected 75,000 people and caused more than 2,200 deaths. South Korea on Thursday reported its first virus-related death, one of 11 outside mainland China.
Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin on Thursday urged the city’s 2.5 million people to stay home and wear masks even indoors if possible.
Officials on Jeju Island said a 22-year-old navy sailor based on the island tested positive for the virus on Friday, days after visiting Daegu for a vacation. The sailor currently hospitalized at a civilian hospital on the island is Jeju’s first virus patient. The Jeju provincial office said in a statement said officials convened an emergency meeting Friday to discuss how to prevent the spread of the disease.
The Defense Ministry said the sailor is also the first virus case in South Korea’s military. Other sailors who contacted him at the Jeju base were placed under quarantine and all other soldiers there were also ordered to wear masks, according to a ministry statement.
The ministry said an air force officer based in Daegu who has recently been on a temporary assignment at the military headquarters in central South Korea also was diagnosed with the virus.
Later Friday, North Chungcheong Province governor Lee Si-jong told reporters that an army officer based in the central province also tested positive for the virus.
Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo ordered military officials to closely coordinate with health authorities to prevent the virus from spreading inside the military and work out special quarantine steps. Jeong also ordered the military to strictly restrict all enlisted troops from vacationing and meeting visitors from outside, according to his ministry.
Most of the new cases in the southeastern region are linked to a church in Daegu.
The Shincheonji church, which claims about 200,000 followers in South Korea, said it has closed all of its 74 sanctuaries around the nation and told followers to instead watch its worship services on YouTube. It said in a statement that health officials were disinfecting its church in Daegu, which has about 8,000 followers.
Shincheonji, which translates as “New heaven and new Earth,” is a controversial new religious movement established in 1984 by Lee Man-hee. The church describes him as an angel of Jesus sent to testify about the fulfilled prophecies of the Book of Revelation.
President Moon Jae-in ordered swifter action to trace down to those who recently visited the Daegu church and a hospital in another southeastern city of Cheongdo, where many virus cases were also reported in the past three days. Moon cited an examination of visitors’ books at hospital funeral halls, according to Moon’s office.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said Friday that the city will keep the Seoul branches of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus closed until the outbreak comes under control. He said authorities will close some 3,500 senior welfare centers across the city, saying that COVID-19 poses a greater health risk for the elderly or those with existing medical condition.
The World Health Organization said the jump in cases in South Korea doesn’t signal an increased risk of a global pandemic. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the new cases were mostly linked to known, existing clusters of infections and that South Korean authorities were following them very closely.
“The number of cases are really manageable, and I hope South Korea will do everything to contain this outbreak at this early stage,” he said.
He noted that more than half of the COVID-19 cases outside China are from Diamond Prince cruise ship docked in Japan.
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